When people are threatened, evolutionary biology dictates extreme reactions: flee or fight? Donna Hicks, who studies conflict resolution at Harvard, says that this dynamic is at the core of much global tension—it’s just scaled up to the level of cities or countries.
So she starts small, focusing on individual interactions. She puts an emphasis on dignity—the inherent value of a life—and says that focusing on that value can prevent or dissolve tensions. Using this approach, she once led a face-to-face reconciliation in Northern Ireland, between an Irish Republican Army fighter and the British police officer he had shot decades before in London.
Hicks’s dignity-based approach applies beyond the domain of police, soldiers, and insurgents; she has mentored graduate students and researchers with these same ideas in mind. For The Atlantic’s series, “On the Shoulders of Giants,” I talked to Hicks about what studying conflict resolution reveals about successful mentorship and how her research can shed light on people’s personal and professional relationships. The conversation that follows has been edited for length and clarity.
[For more on this story by B.R.J. O'DONNELL, go to https://www.theatlantic.com/bu...elationships/541857/]
Photo: FARC rebels wave peace flags to acknowledge the end of the conflict in Colombia, one of several conflicts Donna Hicks has worked on. Jaime Saldarriaga / Reuters
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