Simply telling Palestinians and Israelis on opposite sides of the contentious conflict that people are generally capable of change can dramatically increase their willingness to compromise, according to a paper written by Stanford researchers and published in the journal Science.

“Most conflict resolution strategies require you to bring the two groups together,” said Stanford psychology professor Carol Dweck in an interview with the Stanford Report. “But just attempting this in an incendiary conflict can cause people to react negatively.”

Without mentioning specific adversaries, Stanford researchers found that presenting articles suggesting people could change over time actually improved the chances that the reader would be willing to make compromises in their own region’s conflict; case studies indicated this in areas such as North Ireland and Yugoslavia.

Also surprising to the researchers was that even those with no interest in the issue showed similar results.

“I think the most amazing results were from the West Bank Palestinians,” Dweck said. “These included members of Fatah and Hamas–people who have no stake in the continued existence of Israel.”