Studying How Psychological Factors Influence Conflicts and Peacebuilding Efforts within Societies

Abstract

This study focuses on the psychological factors that affect the escalation of conflict and the efforts towards peacebuilding, targeting government officials in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) and Punjab. The research adopted a quantitative research design to investigate the relationships among emotions, cognitive biases, social identity dynamics, and perceptions of leadership within the contexts of conflict and peacebuilding. It made use of structured questionnaires that featured a Likert scale to gather data collected from a sample of 250 respondents. The use of simple random sampling ensured that the study sample was statistically significant and helped reduce biases. The statistical techniques applied were correlation analysis with R-values ranging from 0.65 to 0.80, p < 0.05; regression analysis with β-values from 0.68 to 0.76; and post-hoc tests to analyze the data and test the research hypotheses. The findings highlight significant relationships between psychological factors and conflict dynamics, demonstrating the impact of emotions, cognitive biases, and leadership strategies on conflict escalation and peacebuilding success. These results offer valuable insights for enhancing peace building strategies in conflict-prone regions.