Worchel notes that targets of the aggression often fail to distinguish between the small faction and the larger group. He cites the example of many Israeli Jews who perceive a terrorist act by an Arab militant group as an attack by the greater Arab population, thereby playing into the hands of the terrorists, who hope that reprisals from target groups will fuel ethnic hatred. Worchel also cautions against intervention by a third party. Intervention, he says, rarely results in lasting ethnic harmony because the third party often imposes a settlement based on force or fear that ignites future conflicts. The French intervention to quell ethnic violence in Rwanda set the stage for the tribal-based massacres of 1994 through 1997, he says.
Intervention also can destroy the independence of indigenous ethnic groups.
He argues for a coordinated, long-term strategy to reduce ethnic violence, one that addresses forces at the individual, group and intergroup levels. He believes the media has a significant role to play. The media can calm ethnic conflict by exposing us to the customs of other groups. Faceless groups can be transformed into individuals. Worchel began his studies of ethnic violence while in Vietnam.