Understanding choice architectures, intergroup dynamics and biases.
Brain and Behavioural Science provides a promising complementary approach to advance peacemaking and preventive diplomacy. Behavioural Science can, for instance, help us better understand aspects of exclusion and inclusion in culturally diverse social settings, the spontaneous eruption of violence and intergroup dynamics, or emotion-focused power imbalances in peace negotiations. It can help understand and address how universal human tendencies, coupled with unique contextual factors, create obstacles to the effective implementation of political and peace processes.
While United Nations peacemakers working in conflict contexts are intuitively applying techniques from psychology and behavioral economics in their mediation and preventive diplomacy engagements, DPPA is exploring a more systematic approach to the application of evidence-based psychological and behavioral techniques. Together with academic partners, DPPA is working to explore possible connections between preventive diplomacy and insights from social and cognitive neuroscience, including the use of brain and behavioral science, to develop and test new tools for practitioners in the fields of peacemaking and peacebuilding. Evidence from these fields suggests that such insights can be used to enhance early warning systems, improve measurement and evaluation methods and outcomes, and drive novel peacebuilding and peacemaking interventions.
“Futuring Peace” is an effort of the UN DPPA Innovation Cell to encourage interdisciplinary approaches such as futures thinking and speculat