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Daniel Bar-Tal (Hebrew: דניאל בר-טל; born 1946) is an is an emeritus social psychology and education professor from the School of Education, Tel Aviv University.

Biography
Bar-Tal was born in Stalinabad (today Dushanbe), Tajikistan, USSR in 1946, to Polish Jewish parents. He lived in Szczecin, Poland until he emigrated to Israel in 1957. Completed his undergraduate studies in psychology and sociology at Tel Aviv University.

Bar-Tal has pursued his graduate training in social psychology at the University of Pittsburgh, where he completed his doctoral dissertation in 1974. His dissertation supervises were Martin Greenberg, Irene Frieze, Paul Lazarsfeld, Robert Glaser and Lauren Resnick. During his doctoral study he participated in the interdisciplinary program led by Paul Lazarsfeld. He completed his postdoctoral studies at Pittsburgh's Learning Research and Development Center in 1975.

In 1975, Bar-Tal returned to Israel and pursued an academic career at the School of Education at Tel Aviv University. In 1989, he attained the rank of full professor and in 2008 was nominated to serve as the Branco Weiss Chair for Research in Child Development and Education.

He served as a founding Director of the Walter Lebach Research Institute for Jewish-Arab Coexistence through Education from 2002 through 2005; was a Co-editor in Chief of the Palestine Israel Journal from 2001 through 2005. He also served as the President of the International Society of Political Psychology from 1999 through 2000. Upon reaching the mandatory retirement age, he left his position in Tel Aviv University in 2015. Nevertheless, he continues his academic work and political activism at full capacity.

Early Career
In the first part of his career, Bar-Tal focused on the study prosocial behavior and development of a social psychology of education. His 1976 book Prosocial behavior: Theory and research was the first book in this field, introducing many social psychologists to the new and emerging area of prosocial behavior. Bar-Tal was also among the first pioneers in the area of social psychology of education, co-editing the first comprehensive book on this topic in 1978 titled Social psychology of education: Theory and research. For the next 10 years he was one of the leading scholars in these two fields, organizing symposia and conferences, and publishing articles and books, including Development and maintenance of Prosocial behavior , and New approaches to social problems: Applications of attribution theory.

Political Psychology
In the early 1980s Bar-Tal moved into the discipline of political psychology, which thereafter shaped his academic career.

Shared societal beliefs
Bar-Tal directed attention to the importance of shared beliefs in groups and societies and later to the importance of collective emotions. He developed major theoretical frameworks on these subjects, which served as foundations for further conceptualization and research. His concepts of group beliefs, societal beliefs, and collective emotional orientation have been well accepted and integrated into the socio-political-psychological lexicon. This line of research pointed out that there is a major difference for a group or a society between when a belief is held by members of society who are not aware that this is a shared belief, and when group members are aware that the belief is widely shared. This awareness turns shared beliefs into a powerful psychological mechanism, which has crucial effects on a group or society. With this line of work, Bar-Tal broke the boundaries of social psychology and led pioneering conceptualization and research in what he called societal psychology. This approach led him to analyze intractable conflicts, the bloody and long lasting conflicts which are the most vicious and threatening to the well-being of the societies involved as well as to the international community as a whole.

Socio-psychological theory of intractable conflict
Bar-Tal developed a theory of intractable conflicts which offers a holistic and comprehensive narrative that has interconnected parts in a causal relationship and can explain and predict the development, escalation, de-escalation, resolution and reconciliation of cases of intractable conflicts in general, and in different parts of the world. It focuses on the socio-psychological aspects of the conflict, but takes a multidisciplinary approach, drawing from political science, sociology, psychology, education, communication and cultural studies. In his 2013 book Intractable Conflicts: Socio-psychological foundations and dynamics he summarized his ideas and empirical work of the last 30 years.

The theory describes the context and characteristics of intractable conflict, which necessarily leads to negative experiences of loss, stress, insecurity, hardship, uncertainty and suffering. These experiences create challenges for a society involved in intractable conflict and its leaders: of coping with stress, of satisfying individual and collective needs, and of opposing the rival society. In order to meet these challenges, it is necessary to construct a functional psychological repertoire of beliefs, attitudes, values and emotions. This repertoire is systematized and structured in the form of conflict supporting narratives, as well as collective emotional orientations. These narratives and emotional orientations are transmitted to society members through various agents of socialization, such as mass media, cultural products, societal institutions, schools, etc. – and eventually become institutionalized. The result of these acculturation processes is the evolution and crystallization of a culture of conflict and a collective identity which becomes interwoven into the fabric of societal life on every level and in every domain. The socio-psychological repertoire of the culture of conflict serves as individual and collective lenses through which to absorb, interpret, process, and evaluate information, which functions as a basis for decision- and policy-making. However, it must also be noted that this repertoire is selective and distortive by nature, being over-simplistic, moralistic, and one-sided. Thus, the theory presents a kind of vicious cycle of violence, as the socio-psychological repertoire leads to violent actions towards the rival group, while its violent reactions serve as validation and reinforcement to this culture of conflict.

Socio-psychological barriers to peacebuilding
An extension of the theory of intractable conflict, Bar-Tal and colleagues proposed a conception of socio-psychological barriers that inhibit peaceful conflict resolution. The concept of barriers suggests that the socio-psychological repertoire which evolved during the conflict serves as a powerful barrier to resolving these conflicts peacefully. These barriers are institutionalized and grounded within the culture of conflict, preventing the processing of new and alternative information which may open new perspectives. On the collective level, societies involved in intractable conflict often make active efforts to maintain their conflict-supporting narratives and prevent the penetration of alternative beliefs which may undermine their dominance. They use various societal mechanisms to block the appearance and dissemination of information which provides an alternative viewpoint regarding the conflict, its goals, costs, and outcomes. Bar-Tal and his colleagues identified several factors as barriers to peacebuilding, among them issues of distrust, emotional orientation of fear and hate, routinization of the conflict, tangible and psychological investment in the conflict, the activities of the spoilers as well as prevention of the flow of the alternative information that promotes peace building and self-censorship of alternative information. They also elaborated on several mechanisms which may enable people to overcome such barriers, through critical and paradoxical thinking.

Peacebuilding and culture of peace
Bar-Tal also sought to go beyond the theorizing of conflict, and conceptualize the processes of peace making and reconciliation. Reconciliation constitutes the societal psychological process that is a necessary pre-condition for building a stable and lasting peace. It involves changes of motivations, goals, beliefs, attitudes and emotions by the majority of society members. Peace building refers to continuous efforts by society members, institutions and channels of communication in order to realize lasting peaceful relations with past rivals, within the framework of a culture of peace. This requires major socio-psychological and cultural societal changes. Both societies need to garner and co-develop vested interests in peaceful relations and secure coexistence. Within this framework, Bar-Tal also developed the concept of peace education, aimed at altering and constructing students’ worldview in a way which facilitates a peacebuilding process and prepares them to live in an era of peace and reconciliation. Bar-Tal and colleagues proposed to differentiate between direct and indirect types of peace education, as methods of challenging and changing the views of younger generations, based on the different stages of the conflictual situation.

Specific Contributions
Bar-Tal in addition made several significant and original contributions during his extensive work in the area of political psychology. He defined, elaborated and outlined the scope of patriotism ; expanded, co-developed and studied the concept of epistemic authority ; introduced the concept of siege mentality ; developed a concept of ethos of conflict that provided a coherent and systematic view of ideology of intractable conflict   ; proposed a new conception of viewing security   ; introduced and outlined the concept of delegitimization  ; co-developed a new conceptual framework for the understanding of the self-perception of collective victimhood  ; proposed a new conception of collective orientation emotions and specifically analyzed collective fear and hope  ; co-developed a new conceptual framework of transitional context that includes major events and major information ; co-developed a new conceptual framework for collective identity that provides a wide perspective and possibility of operationalization ; began a new direction of study as well as developed a new conceptual framework for studying the behavior of societies that carry out prolonged occupation    ; co-proposed a theory for the development of negative intergroup repertoire among children and studied development and consequences of negative stereotypes and prejudice   ; co-developed a model of changing collective memory with stages and influencing variables ; co-developed a conception of how hegemonic conflict-supporting narratives are, formed, developed among children and maintained in societies engaged in intractable conflict. In addition, Bar-Tal through his career struggled for the development of societal psychology. Finally Bar-Tal co-developed a new conceptual framework to explain the deterioration of democracy and rise of authoritarianism.

Major Publications
In addition to the noted books Bar-Tal’s work resulted in numerous other books: Living with the conflict (Carmel, 2007- in Hebrew): He co-edited the following volumes: The Social Psychology of Knowledge (Cambridge University Press, 1988), Social Psychology of Intergroup Conflict (Springer-Verlag, 1998), Stereotyping and Prejudice (Springer-Verlag, 1989), Patriotism in the Life of Individuals and Nations (Nelson-Hall, 1997), How Children Understand War and Peace (Jossey Bass, 1999), and Patriotism: Homeland love (Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 2004-in Hebrew). Recently he edited Intergroup conflicts and their resolution: Social psychological perspective (Psychology Press, 2011), which is a handbook of this area. In 2020-21, he published three books in Hebrew: The conflict in the Israeli society: Psychological aspects in the national ceremonies, In the head of the beholder: Views of the Israeli-Arab/Palestinian conflict by Israeli Jews, and The comfort zone of a society in conflict. In addition, he published over 250 articles and chapters in major social and political psychological journals, books and encyclopedias. His most recent book Sinking into the honey trap of the intractable conflict: The case of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will be published by Westphalia Press and in different countries after its translation.

Awards

 * In 1991, his paper "The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict; A Cognitive Analysis" won the Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Relations Prize of the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues (SPSSI).
 * In 2002, his paper, titled, Why does Fear Override Hope, won the second place in the same competition.
 * In 2006, Stereotypes and Prejudice in Conflict, received the Alexander George Award of the International Society of Political Psychology for the best book in Political Psychology. In 2006 he also received Peace Scholar Award of the Peace and Justice Studies Association.
 * In 2009, his paper “Reconciliation as a foundation of culture of peace” won again the Otto Klineberg Intercultural and International Relations Prize of SPSSI.
 * In 2011 he received the Lasswell Award of the International Society of Political Psychology for distinguished scientific contribution in the field of political psychology.
 * In 2012 he received the Nevitt Sanford Award of the International Society of Political Psychology for engaging in the practical application of political psychological principles, and creating knowledge that is accessible and used by practitioners to make a positive difference in the way politics is carried out.
 * In 2013 he received an honorary membership of the Polish Society of Social Psychology.
 * In 2014 he received the Morton Deutsch Conflict Resolution Award of the Society for the Study of Peace, Conflict, and Violence, Division 48 of American Psychological Association. The prize is given to an individual who has made notable contributions to the integration of theory and practice in the field of conflict resolution.
 * In 2017 he was elected as a foreign member of the Polish Academy of Sciences.

Learning Community
Since 1999, until his retirement in 2015, Bar-Tal founded and lead a learning community of students, dedicated to the research of conflicts and their resolution. This community consisted of graduate and post-graduate students, from leading universities in Israel as well as overseas, which have excelled in their studies (In total, he supervised over 35 doctoral studies). These students conducted their dissertations, theses and research using Bar-Tal’s conceptual frameworks, especially the socio-psychological theory of intractable conflict. The group met every two weeks for a session which included guest lecturers and presentations of work by group members. This learning community served as a framework for learning, reflecting, debating, personal growth; socialization for academic career and societal involvement; as well as for social support. The group cooperatively developed concepts, carried out small research projects, participated in various professional conferences and meetings, reviewed papers, and also conducted social activities.

Political Activism
Concomitantly with his academic career, Bar-Tal was also actively engaged in the realm of political activism and Israeli civil society. During his undergraduate studies, he was an active member of SIAH - a group which had foreseen the disastrous effects of the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and started a struggle against it. As a young academic in the 1980s, he was an activist in the Peace Now movement as member of the Tel Aviv Secretariat, and founder of the Peace Now Youth. Following his retirement in 2015, he founded the “Save Israel-Stop the Occupation” (SISO) movement, stressing the disastrous effects of 50 years of occupation to both Palestinian and Israeli societies. SISO was motivated by the idea of Collective Impact: that coordinated activity by diverse groups, each within its own sector and areas of expertise but with a common strategy, is greater than the sum of its parts. SISO terminated its activities in 2018. However, Bar-Tal remains deeply involved within Israeli civil society, in its struggle for peace and against the occupation.