Entrants's Name: Olek Netzer

Country: Israel

Field: Education

Innovation - idea: New tools for effective prevention of dehumanized attitudes (prejudice, fanaticism,etc.)Based on my psychological Theory of Dehumanization. Blind Areas in conceptual maps are the DIRECT causes that make dehumanized beliefs possible in terms of own values, so intervention that brings them to one's awareness touches the DIRECT causes and is effective like medicine interfering with virus or germs.

Innovation - why it is pioneering: Mainstream research is dominated by the multi-causal approach, with some psychoanalytical approach. Both ignore the difference between DIRECT-conscious and indirect (cultural, economic, historical, sub-conscious etc.) causes. Mine is a Direct-Causation approach that is followed by science in every field but that one, so in that crucial sense my work is pioneering and heralds a breathrough.

Strategy - how it achieves impact: When children are old enough to learn that there are, and always have been,WE and THEM, wars, villains and heroes, perpetrators and victims, etc., they'd be old enough to learn that there has always been the danger that we as humans may become wrong too and sin against other people we designate as different from ourselves. So we must beware of that terrible danger and learn how to avoid it. Students will learn to recognize and analyze the symptoms of dehumanized orientation (Patterned Beliefs and Blind Areas) in their texts in history, social studies, civics, and their own discourse. Becoming aware of them and being able to recognize them in language and in expression of others and self would constitute the strongest means for prevention of dehumanized attitudes. Dehumanized attitudes such as racism, ethnocentrism, fanaticism, sexism, etc. cannot operate without their universal Blind Areas, so bringing them to one's awareness is the most effective means of healing.

Strategy - growth plans: My strategy is contacting all I can reach in my country and all over the world for suggesting them this social- educational invention. In the last two years I took part in an academic convention and a symposium in the U.S. and made presentations of my work. I am an independent unaffiliated researcher with not institutional backing for my activities. The move of presenting myself among the changers of Ashoka is too a part of my strategy for, hopefully,dissimination and replication of my work.

Impact to date: I have got some very supportive responses from professional psychologists and educators in several countries and the U. S. I have not got any negative ones. So far I don't know of any systematic effort to apply my theory and tools and I have no means to do it myself. I keep working on it and my limited experiential data in application has been positive more than I had expected.

Future impact: It would be the realization of my dreams—and of my mission in life—if I have seen my theory applied by teachers and schools in my lifetime. I believe once it is put to practice the impact would be profound, not only on school education but on the political conflict discourse in culture, because the Theory of Dehumanization deciphers the psychological inner code of politically motivated conflict behavior, including the most destructive or evil one. Just imagine a respectable academic source publishing the exact content of dehumanized Patterned Beliefs and Blind Areas in any public figure's media output. I have no control over the future of my model and being an unaffiliated researcher is a tremendously precarious position in relation to academics who are the ones society looks up to for innovations. That is also the reason I decided to present my project to you, I'd much rather be plagiarized than ignored.

Sustainability - resource base: Practically none. I have been in contact with some professional people I met through mailing lists of learned societies such as Society of Psychological Studies of Social Issues, Psychologists for Social Responsibility, International Peace Research Association, and more.

Major challenge for the field: This: Changing the field's fundamental approach to socio- political normative thinking and behavior about war and conflict, from traditional to scientific; and that means from dealing with abstract causes to DIRECT-physical causes (like virus) of normative destructive behavior. Such causes must be located and interfered with within the conscious system of living people's social orientation.

Contact Information:

Olek Netzer

Name: Dr. Olek Netzer - retired
Mailing address: 12, Berliner St. Tel Aviv 69057
Country: Israel
Email: olek.netzer@gmail.com
Tel: (972)0544-386226
Fax: (972)03-6424580
Website: none