Thinking or Feeling?: Effects of Decision Making Personality in Conflict Resolution

This chapter presents an investigation of the effects of decision making personality in solving an international conflict. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is represented in a realistic and well-known videogame, PeaceMaker. Participants in a study played the game, attempting to achieve a two-state solution in the game, under the Israeli role and the Palestinian role of the game. We collected data from their game play and used a questionnaire to collect information regarding the player's personality, their religion, and other general information. Results indicate that the players' decision making personality is related to their performance in PeaceMaker. Players of thinking personality were more successful at reaching a conflict resolution in the game compared to the players with feeling personality, suggesting that those that are more assertive and impersonal, rather than affective and personal, are more successful in conflict resolution. Furthermore, this distinction is particularly important when the players' religions are those involved in the conflict.