*smiles* Thank you, Lisa, lisoosh, Vilbel, G, and IsraeliBlogger for making me feel very welcome. Vilbel, I am indeed a guy. IsraeliBlogger, thanks. Good points. However, I don't regard mental models as being exactly the same as "habits of mind". A mental model is an internal representation of some piece of the real world; the person holding this representation is usually consciously aware of it, and frequently extends or defends it consciously. But when a skin color or an accent or a mode of dress triggers a negative (or positive) reaction, this is frequently not a result of a rational thought or model so much as it is a result of subconscious responses learned over time (habits). These habits may not even form a coherent mental model. Mental models do play a role in the conflict. Sometimes they are the rationalizations on top of the underlying "habits of mind". Sometimes they are used by propagandists to construct or reinforce those underlying habits. Subconscious responses are 10 times quicker than conscious ones. When making peace in an environment of heavy prejudice (some of it warranted, when you have to watch out for guys wearing overcoats during summer, or you need to survive a patrol while serving in an infantry batallion), this is part of the problem... . Zvi