Peaceability and Conflict

Abstract

Individuals have different psychological predispositions for conflict, or peaceabilities. Whether they actually engage in conflict depends on the (institutional) context. We show how peaceabilities and context interact when players differ in three ways: peaceful shares, fighting strengths, and peaceabilities. The context produces two basic behaviors, opportunistic or matching; behavior, in turn, determines if higher peaceability (or its probability) increases the likelihood of conflict. Consequently, for the same change in peaceabilities, the context can produce opposite predictions regarding peace and conflict.