German Institute for Global and Area Studies | Leibniz-Institut für Globale und Regionale Studien

Religion for Peace: Investigating Messengers and Messages for Interreligious Peace

Religious leaders are active for (interreligious) peace in many contexts and, for example, use their rhetoric to advocate for peace. The effectiveness of religious leaders’ rhetoric depends on the interplay of religious leaders being the messengers and the contents of their words—the message itself. This project (re)tests the (comparative) effectiveness of religious leaders as peace messengers and effective content of peace messages. The project also examines effects of an intervention.
DFG, 2024-2026

Team

Julia Köbrich

Doctoral Researcher

Theodora Benesch

Research Fellow

Head

Prof. Dr. Matthias Basedau

Director of the GIGA Institute for African Affairs / Editor GIGA Focus Africa

Research Questions

This research project aims to broaden the evidence basis regarding two research questions:
1. Are religious leaders effective messengers for interreligious peace, particularly in comparison to other actors?
2. What messages are effective in promoting interreligious peace?
Additionally, we want to deepen knowledge on causal effects and examine whether and how interventions can cause improvements in interreligious peace.

Contribution to International Research

Religious leaders are active for (interreligious) peace in many contexts (Vüllers 2021). Apart from taking on roles in peace processes (Svensson 2016; Johnstone and Svensson 2013) or their participation in interreligious networks (Vüllers 2011), religious leaders also use their rhetoric to advocate for peace. Recent experimental studies report mixed results regarding religious leaders’ effectiveness as peace messengers (Blair et al. 2021; Grossman, Nomikos, and Siddiqui 2022) and rarely compare them to other potential peace messengers (an exception is e.g. McCauley 2014). Regarding the content of peace messages, many aspects potentially influencing their impact remain underexplored. This project contributes to knowldge about which actors are effective peace messengers and investigates whether inclusive religious ideas and knowledge about religious outgroups are related to interreligious peace and, hence, could inform peace messages. Additionally, we want to learn more about the causal effects of interventions such as advocacy campaigns or social media trainings on interreligious peace. Hereby the project contributes to answering questions of causality central to research on the religion-peace link and provides peacebuilding practitioners with concrete indications on programs that can affect interreligious peace.

Research Design and Methods

The project will take two approaches to advancing research on messengers and messages for interreligious peace. First, quantitative data will be collected in four cases where interreligious peace is comparably low and background conditions are favorable or unfavorable using online surveys and an experiment. We consider Austria, Greece, Iraq, and Kenya as potential case countries. Thereby, the project will extend research conducted at the GIGA as part of the project "Religion for Peace: Identifying Conditions and Mechanisms of Interfaith Peace" in which we conducted studies in two positive examples of interreligious peace in 2022, namely Togo and Sierra Leone.
Second, the effects of interventions vis-à-vis the promotion of interreligious peace will be evaluated rigorously using experimental methods. In an intervention study, a treatment group that participates in an intervention is compared to a control group that did not participate. Intervention studies are an important tool for research to investigate whether interventions, like advocacy campaigns or social media training, have causal effects on social phenomena such as interreligious peace. Designing and evaluating interventions is also important for peacebuilding practitioners, as intervention studies give them concrete indications on which kinds of programs can affect interreligious peace.

GIGA Focus Africa | 2/2024

Peaceful or Contentious? How to Promote Interreligious Peace in Africa

In African societies, celebrations of religious diversity exist alongside (violent) religious extremism. What determines whether interreligious relations are peaceful or contentious? What can we learn from positive examples, and what role does religious extremism play in interreligious peace?

Hervé Akinocho

Dr. Lisa Hoffmann