Human hostility toward outsiders can be reduced if people feel loved and secure, say UC Davis and Israeli psychologists who have been researching Israeli Jewish student attitudes toward other groups.

The psychologists believe they have located the part of the mind where feelings of security and love can affect positive attitudes toward outsiders.

Phillip Shaver, a psychology professor at UC Davis, and Mario Mikulincer, a psychology professor at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, published their findings in a recent issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

"A normal aspect of human conflict is fear and hostility," Shaver says. "You can reduce someone's sense of threat at a deep unconscious level by activating associations to love and security."

Borrowing from a theory about infants' attachment behavior with their mother, the researchers showed that Jewish students felt more benevolent toward Arabs and Russian immigrants after feelings of security were triggered subconsciously.

The subjects were presented subliminal words such as "love" and "support" within a computerized word-relation test. They then were asked to evaluate people within their own religious group, ethnic background and gender as well as "outsiders" who were Arabs or Russian immigrants.

Shaver and Mikulincer will continue their research using a $100,000 grant from the Fetzer Institute of Michigan for research that sheds light on altruistic love.

"We want to see if people who volunteer to help others are more secure or, if by volunteering, it makes them become more secure," Shaver says.