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Constructive Conflict Guide >
The Complex Factors That Make Intractable Conflict So Difficult >
Conflict "Overlay" Problems
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Channels of Communication
In escalated conflicts, parties often cease communicating altogether, or they ignore each other, assuming the other is biased or simply wrong. Opening channels of communication is an important first step in conflict management or resolution.
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Beyond Conflict's Reports on America's Divided Mind and Renewing American Democracy
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Simple Misunderstandings
Sometimes conflicts are caused by simply misunderstandings -- people thinking someone said or did something that they didn't say or do.
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Lack of Communication Skills
Poor communication skills can make conflicts worse. If people use escalating language, refuse to (or don't know how to) listen well, this leads to misunderstandings and more difficult conflicts than might have been otherwise necessary.
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Homogeneous Self-serving Information Bubbles
All people tend to try to reinforce their beliefs. So they like to live with, work with, socialize with, and read and watch people who agree with them. They don't often seek out people or information that disagrees with them. So they often have very distorted views of what is really going on in a conflict.
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Misinformation and Disinformation
Intentional distortion of information has become a significant problem in the social media driven information environment. It is trivially easy to make up very believable stories with photographic or "scientific data" as proof. And the mis/dis information strategy of "firehose of falsehoods" has successfully convinced many people that there actually is no truth, or at least no way to ascertain it. So best to just stick with your own beliefs -- right or not!
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High-Tech Communication Media Problems
Social media, the Internet, and cable TV has made it trivially easy to reach millions of people with destructive and deceptive information instantaneously and almost for free. And the technology has advanced far more quickly than the social knowledge about how to control it, or control the damage it is doing to our individual and social well-being.
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Free Speech Limits
In the United States, both the Democrats and the Republicans are trying to limit the speech of the other. And Europe is even worse. There you can be arrested for things you post on the Internet that are critical of local authorities.
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Limiting Communication Problems and the Resulting Misunderstandings
People often develop inaccurate (and inflammatory) images of the things that the other side (and, sometimes, their side) is saying and doing. Correcting these misunderstandings can do much to illuminate unrecognized areas of agreement and eliminate unjustified sources of friction.
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Constructive Communicators
Conflict is driven by the images that we have of one another -- images that derive from often flawed processes of interpersonal and mass communication. Constructive communicators help us overcome the limitations of these processes.
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Communication Skill Builders
Communication Skill Builders focus on teaching people the skills that they need to communicate more effectively with their fellow citizens and, especially, help facilitate communication between people with differing views.
News and Opinion
Facebook Is an Authoritarian State