Research

Intergroup violence, conflict and oppression is pervasive across time and space, impacting communities worldwide. It is important that we understand people’s experiences during and in the aftermath of the violence as these experiences shape how they cope with or resist the violence. A comprehensive examination of how people respond to oppression and violence also can facilitate the development of theory-driven programs and policies to reduce the harmful impact of violence and promote equitable societies. 

A central focus of my research is to study the links between historical and sociopolitical contexts, meaning making, and group dynamics among groups targeted by collective violence. As an applied scholar, I am equally focused developing and evaluating theory-informed interventions that facilitate equitable intergroup relations.

I use multiple methods including interviews, focus groups, surveys, field experiments and data analysis of social media data to study questions like:

  • How does historical and sociopolitical contexts shape the psychological needs of groups targeted by collective violence?

  • What meanings do victimized groups construct about their experiences (e.g., power beliefs, collective victim beliefs) and how do these meanings shape their intergroup attitudes, behaviors and policy support?

  • What are the historical and psychological factors that shape resistance against oppression?

  • How does historical and contemporary violence groups’ construction of social identity?

I investigate these questions in diverse contexts (e.g., Africa, Middle East, United States) across multiple instances of intergroup violence including but not limited to genocides, war, colonialism, slavery and structural violence. 

Below are some current lines of research.

Psychological needs of groups targeted by collective violence

Twali, M. S., Eldeeb, S. Y., & Vollhardt, J. R. (resubmitted). Acknowledgment of collective victimization: Findings from four contexts of historical victimization. 

Twali, M. S., Hameiri, B., Vollhardt, J. R., & Nadler, A. (2020). Experiencing acknowledgment versus denial of the ingroup’s collective victimization. In J. R. Vollhardt (Ed.), The social psychology of collective victimhood. New York: Oxford University Press.

Twali, M. S. & Vollhardt (writing). The discrepancies of denial: The experience, forms, and impact of denying different groups’ collective victimization.

Vollhardt, J. R., & Twali, M. S. (writing).  The psychological processes and outcomes of acknowledgment versus denial: A theoretical conceptualization.

Collective meaning-making in the context of collective victimization

Jeong, H.Y., Twali, M. S., & Vollhardt, J.R., (accepted). Beyond vulnerability: Collective victimization beliefs that are linked to collective resilience. In Y. Acar, B. Kellezi, & S. Penić, The power of collective resilience against political violence and repression. New York, NY: Routledge.

Vollhardt, J. R., Twali, M. S., & Jayakody, S. (2021). Inclusive narratives. In G. Elcheroth & N. Del Mel (Eds.), In the shadow of transitional justice. New York, NY: Routledge.

Vollhardt, J.R., Cohrs, C., Zsolt, S., Winiewski, M., Twali, M. S., Hadjiandreou, E., & McNeill, A (2021). The role of group-based comparative victim beliefs in predicting support for hostile versus prosocial intergroup outcomes. European Journal of Social Psychology, 51 (3), 505-524.

Vollhardt, J. R., & Twali, M. S. (2019). The aftermath of genocide: Divergent social psychological processes among victim and perpetrator groups. In L. Newman (Ed.), “Why are they doing this to us?” The social psychology of genocide and extreme intergroup violence. New York: Oxford University Press.

Jeong, M.S., Vollhardt, J.R., & Twali, M.T. (r&r). Black Americans’ multifaceted perceptions of ingroup strengths and their effects on collective efficacy and resistance. 

Vollhardt, J.R., Jeong, H., Szabo, Z., Unal, H., & Twali, M.S. (writing). Collective victim beliefs: A systematic review and theoretical conceptualization.


Collective power

Jeong, H.Y., Vollhardt, J.R., Twali, M. S., & Tawa, J. (2024). Different power perceptions based on socially situated needs: Findings from a qualitative study among Asian Americans. British Journal of Social Psychology.

Twali, M. S., Overstreet, N. M., Vollhardt, J. R., (2023). Lay theories about collective power in the context of racial oppression. European Journal of Social Psychology, 1-18.

Vollhardt, J. R., & Twali, M. S. (2016). Emotion-based reconciliation requires attention to power differences, critical consciousness, and structural change. Psychological Inquiry, 27, 136 – 143.

Twali, M.S. & Jeong, H.Y. (writing). Power beliefs among oppressed groups: A comprehensive framework of perceived power and power dynamics.


Social identity construction during and in the aftermath of collective violence, oppression and resistance

Twali, M. S. (2019). The role of identity transformation in comparative victim beliefs: Evidence from South Sudanese Immigrants. Journal of Social and Political Psychology, 7(2), 1021-1043.

Durrheim, K., Okuyan, M., Twali, M. S., Garcia-Sanchez, E., Pereira, A., Portice, J. S., ... Keil, T. (2018). How racism discourse can mobilize right-wing populism: The construction of identity and alliance in reactions to UKIP’s Brexit “Breaking Point” campaign. Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 28(6), 385-405.

Theory-informed interventions

Khan, S. A., Paluck, E. L., Twali, M. S., & Zeitlin, A. (revise & resubmit). Perspective-taking and its limits: A field experiment in Kenya.