Long-term effects of peace workshops in protracted conflicts

The current study evaluates the efficacy of an intensive four-day contact intervention (a peace workshop) organized in Sri Lanka and represents an initial step toward understanding the long-term impact of such interventions on attitudes and behaviors in the context of protracted ethnic conflict. Compared with two control groups, the participant group showed greater empathy toward members of the other ethnicity, even one year after participation in the peace workshops. Consistent with the attitudinal data on empathy, participants donated more money to help poor children of the other ethnicity than did nonparticipants. Implications are discussed.