Fostering felt understanding through structured communication: Developing a tool to improve intergroup relations

This research tested a procedure for improving intergroup relations by fostering intergroup felt understanding – the belief that members of another group understand one’s own community’s perspectives, experiences, and identity – in conflict-affected Northern Ireland. Based on previous research, the procedure involved incorporating a ‘reflecting back’ step into structured communication between communities. First, 28 Catholics and Protestants shared ingroup perspectives with members of the ‘other’ community, then reflected back to those members what was important to the outgroup community. Then, in a wider community sample of 1,203 Catholics and Protestants we tested the effect of reading outgroup members’ ‘reflected back’ summaries compiled from the first stage. Doing so led participants to feel more understood and more positively regarded by the outgroup, view intergroup relations more positively, and report greater optimism and trust, relative to a control condition and a ‘perspective getting’ condition. We discuss future developments, extensions, and implications of this approach.