Simple kindness can go a long way: Relationships, social identity, and engagement

This paper reviews literature on relationships and draws a link to social identity using an integrative model that has implications for cooperative behavior within and between groups, and for establishing cultures of peace. For example, the group-value model suggests that how communications are delivered (e.g., through conveying respect) matters for cooperation and acceptance of group decisions. Extending this, and based on research on relationships, our integrative model points to the importance of conveying interpersonal warmth and kindness for facilitating pursuit of shared aims among people from different groups/backgrounds. We consider the implications of this for peaceful resolution of conflict.