Singer, H.R., & Zeiger, P. / Published 2010 / Article
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Citation: Singer, H.R., & Zeiger, P. (2010). Contributions of Descriptive Psychology to strategies of negotiation: The case of religion and government. In K. E. Davis, F. Lubuguin, & W. Schwartz (Eds.), Advances in Descriptive Psychology: Vol.9 (pp. 431-452). Ann Arbor, MI: Descriptive Psychology Press.
Abstract: Many troublesome debates about religion and government spring from the differences among people who have different views regarding when the laws of the land can trump the tenets of their religion. The protocols of the debating society, the scientific discussion, or the court of law are not particularly helpful in such situations because those protocols are aimed at picking a winner among competing candidates. Their contexts include a presumption of win-lose, zero-sum. What is needed in the situations under consideration, in contrast, are ways to agree on actions to be taken that do the least violence to the beliefs and practices of the participants. Methods derived from conceptual analyses inspired by Descriptive Psychology show promise for use in such situations.