For many of us, the thought of talking politics is about as appealing as getting a root canal. In a deeply divided America, delving into political discussion doesn’t seem to have much point.
But Kellogg research suggests it can be worth doing—and it’s possible to approach political conversations in a healthy and constructive way. This week, we’ll discuss one tactic that may help.
Plus: Is your boss planning to cut your marketing budget again? You need a better plan.
Use science-based strategies to put aside your preconceived notions of “the other side”
It’s not just your imagination. Something really has changed in American politics, says Eli J. Finkel, a professor of management and organizations. Over the past five years in particular, “the two sides have grown to hate each other so much.”
In a study, Finkel and coauthors examined 200 academic publications in hopes of understanding what’s at the heart of this newfound antagonism and what we can do about it.
One important discovery: the problem is less political polarization and more partisan animosity. It turns out the average liberal and conservative haven’t gotten farther apart in how they think about key political issues, but they have grown to dislike one another much more than they once did. In the 1970s, when pollsters asked voters to rate from zero to 100 their feelings about the average supporter of the opposing party, “you’d get something in the middle of the scale, about 50. Today, it’s closer to about 20,” Finkel says. In other words, we’re not having an issues problem—we’re having a feelings problem that masquerades as a fight over policy.
This may explain why some of the most promising interventions to reduce partisan animosity the researchers identified focused on correcting misperceptions. For example, one study found that Republicans and Democrats overestimated the extent to which the other side dehumanized them—by as much as 300 percent. Correcting such misperceptions, other research has found, can reduce rates of animosity.
Similarly, several studies found that exposure to political opponents’ personal experiences, as well as thoughtful arguments for their positions, softened people’s views of them.
“We don’t hate the other side because we understand what they stand for,” Finkel says. “We hate the other side because we have fabricated villains, misperceiving the average political opponent as a caricatured zealot.”
For more strategies on constructive political conversations, visit Kellogg Insight.
