Rhetoric of Truthfulness in the Battle Between Social Attributions and Empathic Emotions - Conflict and Multimodal Communication: Social Research and Machine Intelligence - page 285

Chapter 15
Rhetoric of Truthfulness in the Battle Between
Social Attributions and Empathic Emotions

F. Milena Marzano, R. Scardigno, and G. Mininni

15.1 Introduction

Interpersonal and intergroup conflicts are strictly connected to individuals incapac-
ity to recognize themselves in others' belief systems and values. It is clear that
conflict loses its potential positive effect in terms of knowledge growth when the
comparison between interpretative systems is taken in a relational setting that is
not supported by the tendency to highlight the reciprocal emotional connotation
with regard to the processes of sense making. On the other hand, conflict resolution
may happen if the different parts start to consider their similarities or differences,
starting from the human experience of emotional sharing. But to establish an
emotional resonance with my enemy/opponent, I must be able to attribute to
him/her the capacity to tell the truth. The rhetoric of truthfulness is a fundamental
socioepistemic condition that gives individuals and groups the opportunity to
resolve tensions related to conflictual situations, especially because it maintains
a typical dialogical situation and gives access to reciprocal trust. Trusting others
is the meta-relational pattern that, starting from attachment relations, regulates
interpersonal and intergroup relations, thereby promoting an emotional tuning
specifically known as empathy .