Interventions to change well-anchored attitudes in the context of intergroup conflict

Changing attitudes is one of the most challenging and important endeavors social psychologists have undertaken in order to promote better quality of life for individuals and collectives. However, when addressing pressing issues, such as intergroup conflict, racism, and inequality, changing attitudes is particularly difficult as individuals are often frozen in their attitudes. Based on the important work of conflict-resolution scholars and practitioners, we report several well-known and new socio-psychological interventions that have been developed to unfreeze attitudes, especially in the context of intergroup conflict. These include providing contradictory information, paradoxical thinking, enlightening individual shortcomings, teaching skills, and the informative process model. We conclude by assessing the lessons learned from the research and practice of psychological interventions, focusing on their application in the field, and the value of increased cooperation between researchers and practitioners.