Sacred values and conflict over Iran's nuclear program
Conflict over Iran's nuclear program, which involves a US-led policy to impose sanctions on Iran, is perceived by each side as a preeminent challenge to its own national security and global peace. Yet, there is little scientific study or understanding of how material incentives and disincentive...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2010-12-01
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| Series: | Judgment and Decision Making |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journal.sjdm.org/10/101203/jdm101203.pdf |
| _version_ | 1797727833285459968 |
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| author | Morteza Dehghani Scott Atran Rumen Iliev Sonya Sachdeva Douglas Medin Jeremy Ginges |
| author_facet | Morteza Dehghani Scott Atran Rumen Iliev Sonya Sachdeva Douglas Medin Jeremy Ginges |
| author_sort | Morteza Dehghani |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Conflict over Iran's nuclear program, which involves a US-led policy to impose sanctions on Iran, is perceived by each side as a preeminent challenge to its own national security and global peace. Yet, there is little scientific study or understanding of how material incentives and disincentives, such as economic sanctions, psychologically affect the targeted population and potentially influence behaviour. Here we explore the Iranian nuclear program within a paradigm concerned with sacred values. We integrate experiments within a survey of 1997 Iranians. We find that a relatively small but politically significant portion of the Iranian population believes that acquiring nuclear energy has become a sacred value, in the sense that proposed economic incentives and disincentives result in a ``backfire effect'' in which offers of material rewards or punishment lead to increased anger and greater disapproval. This pattern was specific to nuclear energy and did not hold for acquiring nuclear weapons. The present study is the first demonstration of the backfire effect for material disincentives as well as incentives, and on an issue whose apparent sacred nature is recent rather than longstanding. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T11:05:12Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-18b2fea4c41742008b15eed6981f0a7c |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1930-2975 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T11:05:12Z |
| publishDate | 2010-12-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Judgment and Decision Making |
| spelling | doaj.art-18b2fea4c41742008b15eed6981f0a7c2023-09-02T04:00:22ZengCambridge University PressJudgment and Decision Making1930-29752010-12-0157540546Sacred values and conflict over Iran's nuclear programMorteza DehghaniScott AtranRumen IlievSonya SachdevaDouglas MedinJeremy GingesConflict over Iran's nuclear program, which involves a US-led policy to impose sanctions on Iran, is perceived by each side as a preeminent challenge to its own national security and global peace. Yet, there is little scientific study or understanding of how material incentives and disincentives, such as economic sanctions, psychologically affect the targeted population and potentially influence behaviour. Here we explore the Iranian nuclear program within a paradigm concerned with sacred values. We integrate experiments within a survey of 1997 Iranians. We find that a relatively small but politically significant portion of the Iranian population believes that acquiring nuclear energy has become a sacred value, in the sense that proposed economic incentives and disincentives result in a ``backfire effect'' in which offers of material rewards or punishment lead to increased anger and greater disapproval. This pattern was specific to nuclear energy and did not hold for acquiring nuclear weapons. The present study is the first demonstration of the backfire effect for material disincentives as well as incentives, and on an issue whose apparent sacred nature is recent rather than longstanding.http://journal.sjdm.org/10/101203/jdm101203.pdfprotected valuessacred valuesIrannuclear programsanctionsconflict resolution.NAKeywords |
| spellingShingle | Morteza Dehghani Scott Atran Rumen Iliev Sonya Sachdeva Douglas Medin Jeremy Ginges Sacred values and conflict over Iran's nuclear program Judgment and Decision Making protected values sacred values Iran nuclear program sanctions conflict resolution.NAKeywords |
| title | Sacred values and conflict over Iran's nuclear program |
| title_full | Sacred values and conflict over Iran's nuclear program |
| title_fullStr | Sacred values and conflict over Iran's nuclear program |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sacred values and conflict over Iran's nuclear program |
| title_short | Sacred values and conflict over Iran's nuclear program |
| title_sort | sacred values and conflict over iran s nuclear program |
| topic | protected values sacred values Iran nuclear program sanctions conflict resolution.NAKeywords |
| url | http://journal.sjdm.org/10/101203/jdm101203.pdf |
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