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

过去的一年里，部落政治达到了顶峰，党派骚乱者冲进了美国国会的霍尔斯。作为回应，乔·拜登总统的就职演说呼吁团结，让人们超越意识形态，“站在彼此的立场上”（法洛斯，2021）。导致这些事件的超极化趋势可以在媒体平台上观察到，这表明重点从真正的政策差异转向相互的个人蔑视（Abramowitz &韦伯斯特，2016）。党内冲突导致意识形态派别之间的不信任，从而加速了这些趋势。一些人认为，这些分歧的根源在于越来越多的“同情赤字”（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 &柯克兰，2020）。本研究的目的有三个：（1）调查右翼和左翼之间的相互蔑视（2）在更广泛的左翼和右翼视角下理解不同的意识形态身份，并调查意识形态蔑视（3）调查视角转换是否足以增强共情和减少群体间的蔑视。为了理解这些分歧，必须了解群体间蔑视的根源是否因具体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，以找到未来的共同点，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.