Wolf, Lukas J and Hanel, Paul HP (2024) Correcting misperceptions of fundamental differences between US Republicans and Democrats: Some hope-inspiring effects. Social Psychological and Personality Science. DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506241263887
Wolf, Lukas J and Hanel, Paul HP (2024) Correcting misperceptions of fundamental differences between US Republicans and Democrats: Some hope-inspiring effects. Social Psychological and Personality Science. DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506241263887
Wolf, Lukas J and Hanel, Paul HP (2024) Correcting misperceptions of fundamental differences between US Republicans and Democrats: Some hope-inspiring effects. Social Psychological and Personality Science. DOI https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506241263887
Abstract
Perceived polarization between US Democratic and Republican voters has grown over past decades, and this polarization underpins a dwindling sense of hope about the future. Contrary to this trend, the present three experiments (one pre-registered) with 2,529 US participants found substantial similarities between the groups in their fundamental values. We tested whether depicting these real value similarities in overlapping distributions can correct misperceptions of group differences and increase hope. Republicans and Democrats who saw overlapping distributions perceived the groups as more similar and expressed more hope in open-ended comments, compared to seeing commonly-used barplots or receiving no information. The effect on qualitative hope was partially explained by a sense of shared reality and potential for compromise between groups. We call on the social sciences to report the amount of group overlap when communicating research findings on group comparisons to the media and public to help reduce harmful perceptions of polarization.
Item Type: | Article |
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Uncontrolled Keywords: | polarization, similarities, values, US politics, hope, animosity, intergroup attitudes, science communication |
Divisions: | Faculty of Science and Health Faculty of Science and Health > Psychology, Department of |
SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
Date Deposited: | 12 Sep 2024 16:35 |
Last Modified: | 12 Sep 2024 16:36 |
URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/38494 |
Available files
Filename: wolf-hanel-2024-correcting-misperceptions-of-fundamental-differences-between-u-s-republicans-and-democrats-some-hope.pdf
Licence: Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0