Testing a Model of Intergroup Trust in Northern Ireland and Lebanon

Intergroup trust is exceedingly recognized as an important yet complex construct in the literature and documented as a key factor of reconciliation in post-conflict societies (Bar-Tal, 2000; Kelman, 2005). Such societies are often marked by injustices, social inequalities, and threat. Research has shown that in such contexts people are likely to be selective about the situations in which they are willing to trust the outgroup (Hughes, Campbell, & Jenkins, 2011), suggesting that building trust requires an understanding of the conditions in which post-conflict social groups interact. To that end, we examined a model of intergroup trust as a multi-construct, underpinned by procedural justice, perceived intergroup equality, and reduced threat. We conducted cross-sectional survey studies in mixed student and community samples in two societies characterized by a history of sectarian conflict – Northern Ireland (Study 1, n = 294) and Lebanon (Study 2, n = 431) – focusing on religious sect/community as the contextual intergroup unit. Analyses from structural equation modelling showed that intergroup trust is complex, composed of distinct constructs of trust and driven by the aforementioned underlying processes. Working in a multiple group framework, we found this to be consistent across social identity group within each cultural sample. Our findings highlight the complexities involved in examining and establishing trust towards the outgroup in post-conflict societies. The implications of examining these multiple trust constructs further in the context of reconciliation are discussed.