Walking a mile in my shoes: The role of perspective-taking in political inter-group relations

过去的一年见证了部落政治的高潮，党派暴徒冲进了美国国会的大厅。作为回应，乔·拜登总统的就职演说呼吁团结，呼吁人们超越意识形态，“站在彼此的立场上”（Fallows, 2021）。在媒体平台上可以观察到导致这些事件的高度两极分化趋势，这代表了从真正的政策差异到相互个人蔑视的重点转变（Abramowitz & Webster, 2016）。党内冲突导致意识形态内部派系之间的不信任，加速了这些趋势。一些人认为，这些分歧的根源在于日益严重的“同理心赤字”（Ditto & Koleva, 2011）。事实上，长期以来，共情一直被视为解决群体间冲突的适当方法，但最近的研究表明，共情可能并不总是有效地减少分裂（Simas, Clifford & Kirkland, 2020）。本研究的目的有三个方面：(1)调查左翼和右翼之间的相互蔑视；(2)在更广泛的左翼和右翼视角下了解不同的意识形态认同，并在意识形态蔑视中进行调查；(3)调查换位思考是否足以提高共情和减少群体间的蔑视。为了理解这些分歧，重要的是要了解群体间蔑视的根源是否因特定的意识形态认同而不同。最重要的是，探索左翼和右翼意识形态内部的不同身份，将有助于确定更开放的观点，以寻找未来的共同点，这对任何民主制度都至关重要。

The past year saw a culmination of tribal politics, as partisan rioters stormed the halls of the US Congress. In response, President Joe Biden's inaugural address was a call for unity, for people to look past ideology and "stand in each other's shoes" (Fallows, 2021). The trends of hyper-polarisation that contributed to these events can be observed across media platforms, representing a shift in emphasis from genuine policy differences to mutual personal contempt (Abramowitz & Webster, 2016). These trends are accelerated by within-party conflicts leading to distrust between intra-ideological factions. Some argue that at the root of these divisions lies an increasing "empathy deficit" (Ditto & Koleva, 2011). Indeed, empathy has long been viewed as an appropriate solution to intergroup conflict, but recent research suggests that empathy may not always be effective in reducing division (Simas, Clifford & Kirkland, 2020). The aims of the proposed research are three-fold: (1) Investigate the mutual contempt maintained between the right and left-wing (2) understand the different ideological identities within broader left and right-wing perspectives and investigate within ideological contempt (3) investigate whether perspective-taking is sufficient to heighten empathy andlessen inter-group contempt. It is important to understand whether the roots of inter-group contempt differ depending on specific ideological identity in order to understand these divisions. Most importantly, exploring the divergent identities within left and right-wing ideologies will aid in identifying perspectives that will be more open to finding common ground going forward, which is crucial for any democratic system.