Developing ReApp: an emotion regulation mobile intervention for intergroup conflict

People living in areas of intractable conflicts experience extreme negative emotions which ultimately lead to support of aggressive policies. Emotion regulation and particularly cognitive reappraisal has been found to be effective in reducing negative emotional experiences and shifting policy preferences. Therefore, it is important to develop scalable, evidence-based interventions aimed at regulating negative emotions in such contexts. In this paper, we introduce ReApp–a mobile game, aimed at training people to regulate their emotions using cognitive reappraisal. We examine the game's effectiveness in reducing negative emotions and support for aggressive policies in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Results indicate that people who played ReApp experienced lower levels of anger and disgust, and were less supportive of aggressive political policies targeted at the outgroup. We believe that games such as ReApp could potentially influence mass audiences and by that promote conflict resolution.