We demonstrate how psychological scientists can curate rich-yet-accessible media to intervene on conflict-escalating attitudes during the earliest stages of violent conflicts. Although wartime atrocities all-too-often ignite destructive cycles of tit-for-tat war crimes, powerful third parties can de-escalate the bloodshed. Therefore, following Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine, we aimed to reduce Americans' support for committing retributive war crimes against Russian soldiers. To intervene during the earliest stages of the invasion, we drew on theories of dehumanization and “parasocial” intergroup contact to curate publicly available media expected to humanize Russian soldiers. We then identified the most effective materials by simultaneously evaluating all of them with an intervention tournament. This allowed us to quickly implement a psychological intervention that reliably reduced support for war crimes during the first days of a momentous land war. Our work provides a practical, result-driven model for developing psychological interventions with the potential to de-escalate incipient conflicts.

我们展示了心理科学家如何策划丰富且易于访问的媒体，以在暴力冲突的最初阶段干预冲突升级的态度。尽管战时暴行常常引发针锋相对的战争罪行的破坏性循环，但强大的第三方可以缓和流血事件。因此，在俄罗斯非法入侵乌克兰之后，我们的目标是减少美国对俄罗斯士兵犯下报复性战争罪行的支持。为了在入侵的最初阶段进行干预，我们利用非人化和“准社会”群体间接触的理论来策划公开媒体，以期使俄罗斯士兵变得人性化。然后，我们通过干预锦标赛同时评估所有材料，从而确定了最有效的材料。这使我们能够快速实施心理干预，在重大陆地战争的最初几天可靠地减少对战争罪的支持。我们的工作为开发心理干预措施提供了一个实用的、结果驱动的模型，有可能缓解初期冲突。