Discrimination in peacebuilding: The role of moral wiggle room

 Tatiana Orozco Garcia, Marcela Ibanez

Conflicts tend to polarize societies generating divisions among citizens along with identity feelings as ”enemy vs. friend” or ”offender vs. victim.” These out-group/in-group stereotypes persist when the civil conflict ends, threatening sustainable peacebuilding possibilities. We study discriminatory preferences towards former perpetrators after conflict and whether individuals avoid information and use ”moral wiggle room” to excuse selfish behavior. The context of the study is Colombia. After the 2016 peace agreement between the Colombian government and Farc combatants, reconstruction efforts have focused on combatants’ economic reintegration. Unless the population is willing to support the reintegration efforts initiated by ex-combatants, recidivism is at risk. We employ an online field experiment to investigate two main questions. First, we study discriminatory preferences eliciting the WTP for a product produced by either ex-FARC combatants or other farmers. Second, we test if individuals strategically decide to remain ignorant about the identity of the producer of the good to act selfishly. The data indicates that, on average, participants pay less for the coffee when the probability of receiving coffee produced by ex-combatants is higher, beliefs about ex-combatants are positively correlated with the WTP, and avoiding information leads to a higher WTP.