Tehila Kalagy

Perceptions of collective narratives have been found to be meaningful in understanding intergroup relations. The aim of this study was to examine intergroup relations between two religious groups by measuring perceptions of in-group and out-group collective narratives. The two groups in question were ultraOrthodox Jews and national religious Jews in Israel. This chapter presents two different methods to analyze data collected by the perceptions of collective narratives tool (described in detail in previous chapters). Data were collected from a sample of 402 ultraOrthodox and 388 national religious Jews. In comparison to the national religious Jews, the ultra-Orthodox reported a lower tendency to give legitimacy to the narrative of the out-group and showed stronger emotions of anger and weaker feelings of empathy towards them. A significant difference between the two groups was found regarding two themes: the status of the State of Israel and Torah learning. The results are discussed in an attempt to understand intergroup relations between religious groups, against the backdrop of the unique context of the two religious communities.