Preferred Attributes of Effective Conflict Resolvers in Seven Societies: Culture, Development Level, and Gender Differences" zyx CRISTINA JAYME MONTIEL2 zyxwvu Ateneo de Manila University Manila. The Philippines KLAUS BOEHNKE Department zyxw of Sociology Technische Universitc?t Chemnitz. Germany This research examined variations in preferred personality attributes of conflict resolvers. Using a semantic differential scale, youth from Malaysia, Japan, China, Philippines, Aus- tralia, Germany, and the United States described an effective conflict resolver. ANOVA procedures tested whether culture, country's level of economic development, or gender produced significant variations on conflict resolver preferences. Results show that conflict resolvers can be described along a continuum that has a compassionate peacemaker on one side and a dominating peacemaker on the other. Cultural differences produced mar- ginal significance. The stronger effects were results of variations in power positions. A compassionate peacemaker was preferred by respondents from developing societies, rather than by those from the wealthier countries, and by women more than men. Social conflict in the 1990s was marked by two characteristics. First, complex transnational conflict configurations emerged in lieu of the bilateral antagonism between two Cold War superpowers. Second, conflicts seemed to be more social psychological in nature, involving intergroup violence in drawn-out, protracted struggles (Fisher, 1990, 1993; Rubin, 1992; Tajfel zyxw & Turner, 1979). As political systems become more interdependently transnational in charac- ter, so too does the nature of social conflict and its management increasingly cross borders. International mediation often brings third parties from Western, more economically developed societies into geographical boundaries of less eco- nomically developed societies zyxwv as, for example, recent peacemaking interventions in the former Yugoslavia, Cambodia, zyxwv or Rwanda and Burundi. A problem arises when conflict-resolution styles of foreign mediators differ from preferences of We gratefully acknowledge that the preparation of this paper was supported by grants from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), #KZ A9524283 322. the Reverend Joseph O'Hare, S. J. Professorial Chair of Ateneo de Manila University (the Philippines), and the Woodstock Theo- logical Center of Georgetown University (United States) to the first author. We also wish to thank our two anonymous reviewers, whose helpful suggestions have been integrated into this article. *Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Cristina Montiel, Department of Psychology. Ateneo de Manila University, P.O. Box 154, Manila 1099, Philippines. 1071 zyxw Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 2000, 30, 5, pp. 1071 -1 094 Copyright 0 2000 by V. H. Winston 13 Son, Inc. All rights reserved.