Doctoral Dissertation Research: When Does Interparty Conversation Harm or Heal Affective Polarization

博士论文研究：党际对话何时损害或治愈情感两极分化

• 批准号: 1938811
• 负责人: Jacob Montgomery
• 金额: $ 2.33万
• 依托单位: Washington University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-03-15 至 2021-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1938811&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; When; Does

Americans increasingly dislike, distrust, and even discriminate against members of the opposite political party. Yet, Americans interact with opposing party members in their everyday lives. Conversations—whether touching on politics or not—occur at work, online, or when ordering a morning coffee. How do these everyday conversations across party lines affect the animosity Americans hold for opposing party members? When might everyday conversations reinforce, and when might they mitigate, this animosity? Because engaging in disagreeable political conversation is important for the healthy functioning of a democracy, this research analyzes the role political conversations play in shaping attitudes toward opposing party members. By identifying the conditions under which conversations tend to heal, and when might they worsen, America's partisan animosity, this research brings evidence to bear on how Americans' everyday interactions impact the broader political climate. Americans' increasing animosity for members of the opposing party is well-documented. However, it remains unclear how everyday interactions amongst opposing party members affect this trend. On the one hand, many Americans strongly identify as members of a political party. Research shows that partisanship, as a group-based identity, negatively colors our perceptions of outparty members. It follows that interparty conversation could go awry and further harm negative attitudes toward outparty members. One the other hand, theories of intergroup relations suggest that contact with outparty members can heal outparty animosity. This project addresses these conflicting expectations by theorizing about how interparty conversations unfold, what effect interparty conversations have on outparty attitudes, and how this may differ for political and non-political conversations. This project also develops two novel methodological approaches to facilitate an experimental test of its hypotheses. First, this project develops an experimental design suited for experiments involving social interaction, which is common in studies of deliberation and political discussion. Second, this project develops a chat software so participants can engage in real-time, written, online conversations, without the need for an academic laboratory or existing participant pool. Taken together, the experimental design and chat software overcome a set of methodological and practical concerns to improve the experimental study of social interaction.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

美国人越来越不喜欢、不信任甚至歧视对立政党的成员。 然而，美国人在日常生活中与反对党成员互动。 无论是否涉及政治，谈话都发生在工作中，网上，或者在早上点咖啡的时候。 这些跨越党派界限的日常对话如何影响美国人对反对党成员的敌意？ 日常对话什么时候会加强这种敌意，什么时候会减轻这种敌意？ 由于从事不愉快的政治对话是民主的健康运作的重要，本研究分析了政治对话中发挥的作用，形成对反对党成员的态度。 通过确定对话倾向于愈合的条件，以及何时可能恶化美国的党派仇恨，这项研究为美国人的日常互动如何影响更广泛的政治气候提供了证据。 美国人对反对党成员日益增长的敌意是有据可查的。 然而，目前尚不清楚反对党成员之间的日常互动如何影响这一趋势。 一方面，许多美国人强烈认同自己是一个政党的成员。 研究表明，党派之争，作为一个基于群体的身份，负面色彩我们的看法外党成员。 因此，党派间的对话可能会出差错，进一步损害对党外成员的负面态度。 另一方面，群际关系理论表明，与外部成员接触可以治愈外部仇恨。 该项目通过理论化政党间对话如何展开，政党间对话对外部态度有什么影响，以及政治和非政治对话如何不同，来解决这些相互冲突的期望。 该项目还开发了两种新的方法，以促进其假设的实验测试。 首先，本项目开发了一种适合于涉及社会互动的实验的实验设计，这在审议和政治讨论的研究中很常见。 其次，该项目开发了一个聊天软件，使参与者可以进行实时，书面，在线对话，而不需要学术实验室或现有的参与者池。 总之，实验设计和聊天软件克服了一系列方法和实际问题，以改善社会互动的实验研究。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得支持的，通过评估使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准。

项目成果

Measuring Agenda Setting in Interactive Political Communication

衡量互动政治沟通中的议程设置

• DOI: 10.1111/ajps.12653
• 发表时间: 2021
• 期刊: American Journal of Political Science
• 影响因子: 4.2
• 作者: Rossiter, Erin L.