The proposed research program explores the role emotions play in civil conflicts and whether targeted interventions might alleviate tensions in processes of conflict resolution. While recent research shows that inclusion and power sharing mitigate conflict, very little is known about how the preconditions for such solutions to societal tensions can be created to help avoid "conflict traps." Adopting a micro-perspective the project aims at elucidating how exposure to violence affects interpersonal interactions, and more specifically bargaining behavior, and how so. Getting a grasp at what mechanisms, especially what emotions, affect more accommodating behavior among individuals but also elites, may offer new avenues for conflict resolution.

The overarching research question, namely how exposure to violence and emotions affect interethnic cooperation and bargaining, will be addressed in ``lab-in-the-field'' experiments in four different sites citizens who have experienced conflict and among elites participating at training sessions provided by UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research). Adopting innovative research designs and a novel experimental setup the research program will help identify the causal effect of exposure to violence on individuals (both citizens and elites) and identify the role of emotions as mechanisms in this relationship. As part of the research emotions will be regulated among individuals, the findings from the research program will provide actionable insights to help in the resolution of conflicts.