"Cross-Partisan Conversation Reduced Affective Polarization for Republicans and Democrats Even after the Contentious 2020 Election", the latest article from Erin Rossiter and Taylor Carlson, has been published through the Journal of Politics. Read the article here.
Erin Rossiter is the the Nancy Reeves Dreux Assistant Professor of Political Science at University of Notre Dame, and earned her PhD with WashU Political Science in 2021. Taylor Carlson is Associate Professor of Political Science at WashU.
Abstract: Recent evidence suggests that cross-partisan conversation can reduce affective polarization. Yet, this evidence comes fromexperiments that dampen the contentious features of political environments like elections. We expected that cross-partisan conversation will be less effective at reducing affective polarization for partisans who experience partisan groupthreat from an election loss. We test our theory using a preregistered experiment in which Democrats and Republicanschatted via text online. Participants discussed the 2020 presidential election immediately following Biden’s inauguration,a contentious context that we show differentially amplified feelings of group threat among Republicans. However, for bothsides, cross-partisan conversations reduced out-party animosity for at least three days, reduced social polarization, but didnot increase perceptions of election integrity. Our results suggest that cross-partisan conversation can effectively reduceaffective polarization among both Republicans and Democrats even in contentious contexts that amplify group threat.
