Parent (Previous) Guide Folders
Constructive Conflict Guide >
Intractable Conflict Threat and Opportunity >
Runaway Escalation and Hyper-Polarization
______________________

Small-Group Intractable Conflict Threat

Subsidiary Folders
Destroys Relationships
Even small scale intractable conflicts can destroy once harmonious and rewarding relationships.

Subsidiary Folders
Poor (Harmful and Costly) Decisions
When people are embroiled in conflict, it clouds their analytical abilities, causing them to make poor decisions, or to avoid decisions entirely, allowing the default option to occur, even if it is harmful.

Subsidiary Folders
Psychological Stress and Mental Illness
Continuing conflict can be very draining on one's psychology, leading to anxiety, depression, and other mental ills.

Subsidiary Folders
Hate
Hate spirals are especially damaging, as people who need to cooperate can no longer talk to or trust the other. And hate begets more hate, driving escalation and polarization higher and higher.

Subsidiary Folders
Fear
The drive for security is one of human's most fundamental needs. Fears for one's physical, psychological, or socioeconomic well being are very destabilizing and people tend to fight until their sense of security is restored.

Subsidiary Folders
Anger
Anger can drive one to act, but it also can be very destructive, causing people to lash out at others in ways that make the situation for everyone worse, rather than better.

Subsidiary Folders
Violence
Violence takes many forms -- physical, psychological, and structural. All are very destructive of relationships, trust, and social stability. Sometimes that is the point, of course, but violence often backfires --causing as much harm to the perpetrators as it does to the victim.