Why is it so hard to talk each other across our ideological divides? The fact that liberals and conservatives have trouble communicating across lines of difference has been a source of great interest, distress, indignation, and commentary. While the phenomenon is undeniable, we have a lot to learn about the forces at play when we resist engaging each other’s perspectives.
In recent research, Frimer, Skitka, and Motyl (2017) explored the way that liberals and conservatives avoid engaging with ideologically opposing views on a range of issues, including same-sex marriage, abortion, gun control, and legalizing marijuana. They found that a majority of both liberals and conservatives forfeited the chance to win more money in order to avoid exposure to opposing arguments. Moreover, the researchers found that avoiding contradictory views was not due to already being informed about the other side. Instead, they found that people on both sides of the divide avoided other opinions for fear of experiencing negative emotions and the effort required to engage other views. Participants also reported being afraid of damaging a sense of shared reality, causing an argument, and hurting the relationship with a person on the other side of ideological divides.
Given that the lack of communication across these divides threatens to further stratify our societies, it is important to explore ways to overcome the roots of this avoidance. Therefore, what is most instructive about this research is the insight it provides into the reasons that people are unwilling to listen across lines of difference. If fear of experiencing negative emotions and of damaging relationships deters people, we need to ask, how do we make difference and dissonance less threatening to people? How do we foster a stronger belief in the constructive value of engaging with difference? Approaches that bring people together across lines of difference (ex. creating educational spaces and facilitated opportunities for dialogue) should keep in mind underlying reasons for avoidance of difference that are identified in this study, as such approaches could prove to be most effective in addressing the roots of our divides.
Reference: Frimer, J. A., Skitka, L. J., and Motyl, M. (2017). Liberals and conservatives are similarly motivated to avoid exposure to one another’s opinions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72, 1-12.
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