WISE INTERVENTIONS

Five days before Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas formally sought full membership for Palestine in the United Nations, Jewish Israelis were taught to reappraise experiences of anger. They were given six pictures designed to induce anger and asked “to respond to them like scientists, objectively and analytically—to try to think about them in a cold and detached manner.” They were then asked to use that technique in the next week. They also received three text message reminders over the week. As compared to a control condition in which Jewish Israelis were asked to respond to the same pictures naturally, those in the reappraisal condition expressed less negative emotions (e.g., anger) toward Palestinians, greater support for conciliatory policies, and less support for aggressive policies toward Palestinians both 1 week later (2 days after the Palestinian bid) and 5 months later.