The Influence of Context and Political Identification on Israeli Jews' Views of Palestinians.

This study followed changes among Israeli Jews in stereotypic perceptions, attitudes, and feelings toward Palestinians, as a function of political identification on the dove-hawk dimension. The study used the research paradigm of Gilbert (1951) and Karlins, Coffman, and Walters (1969), by administering the same questionnaire to compatible groups of students at 4 points in time between 1990 and 2000, a period in which critical events concerning Palestinian–Israeli relations occurred. Participants were 394 Israeli students enrolled at the School of Education at Tel Aviv University. The analyses showed that dovish participants tended to be more positive toward Palestinian people than the hawkish participants. Also, there was a general tendency for more positive perceptions and attitudes to develop over time. Finally, whereas dovish participants tended to exhibit a linear trend in becoming more positive toward the Palestinians over time, hawkish participants demonstrated a quadratic pattern, with 1995 and 200...