Antecedents and behavioural consequences of violence in Indonesia
Creators: name: Sanjaya, M
Publisher: name: RMIT University
Year: 2024
Subjects: classificationCode: 380106
subject: Experimental economics
classificationCode: 440407
subject: Socio-economic development

description: Indonesia has a long history of conflict that has often led to violence. Even today, small-scale violence persists. Existing studies on Indonesia have identified ethnic grievances, economic motives and institutional changes as some of the main drivers of conflict. While such studies are important to understand the antecedents of conflict at the macro level, there is a need to dig deeper into the consequences of conflict at the micro-level to understand its effect on individual behaviour. Thus, the objective of this thesis is first to further investigate the antecedents of violence in post-conflict Indonesia and, second, to examine the effect of the conflict experience on individual behaviour. To achieve these objectives, this study conducted a secondary data analysis at the sub-national level and a lab-in-the-field experiment in Aceh, where the last large conflict in Indonesia ended in 2005.<br><br>The sub-national analysis of secondary data uses ethnolinguistic fractionalisation weighted by linguistic similarities to objectively measure ethno-cultural diversity. The analysis finds this variable to have a curvilinear (inverted-U shape) relationship with violence---a result that is robust to different measures of violence and fractionalisation, as well as to the use of instrumental variable method and additional covariates. This finding aligns with past studies on ethnic grievances and conflict, although the relationship is non-linear, rather than linear. Most Indonesian districts have levels of diversity lower than the turning point on the inverted-U; hence, ethno-cultural diversity currently has negative effects in the country.<br><br>Experimental studies on the effect of conflict on individual behaviour have mostly focused on the prosocial. However, the research agenda is now turning to antisocial behaviour to capture the dark side of human nature. In the lab-in-the-field experiment, this study used an antisocial behaviour game to examine out-group bias between Acehnese and Javanese participants, as the Aceh conflict witnessed inter-ethnic violence between these two groups. In the game, participants could choose to pay to destroy other participants¿ payoffs (for no reason other than spite). The study found that one in four participants destroyed in general, with the Acehnese destroying more against the Javanese. Interestingly, such antisocial behaviour was higher among women who experienced conflict, which aligns with previous studies¿ findings that women experience the worst stress symptoms from conflict. Prior to the field research in Aceh, the same experiment was conducted with Indonesian migrants in Melbourne, Australia, to identify the antecedents of this sort of antisocial behaviour among Indonesians who have not experienced conflict. Here, the study did not find differential behaviour against out-group members, but found antisocial behaviour to be strongly associated with negative beliefs about the other.<br><br>These findings have important policy implications, including suggesting potential avenues for improvements in conflict management by promoting intercultural dialogues. They also highlight the need to fully address the grievances of both women and ethnic minorities to ensure lasting peace.