Author:
Jahani Eaman,Gallagher Natalie,Merhout Friedolin,Cavalli Nicolo,Guilbeault Douglas,Leng Yan,Bail Christopher A.
Abstract
AbstractA longstanding theory indicates that the threat of a common enemy can mitigate conflict between members of rival groups. We tested this hypothesis in a pre-registered experiment where 1670 Republicans and Democrats in the United States were asked to complete an online social learning task with a bot that was labeled as a member of the opposing party. Prior to this task, we exposed respondents to primes about (a) a common enemy (involving Iran and Russia); (b) a patriotic event; or (c) a neutral, apolitical prime. Though we observed no significant differences in the behavior of Democrats as a result of priming, we found that Republicans—and particularly those with very strong conservative views—were significantly less likely to learn from Democrats when primed about a common enemy. Because our study was in the field during the 2020 Iran Crisis, we were able to further evaluate this finding via a natural experiment—Republicans who participated in our study after the crisis were even less influenced by the beliefs of Democrats than those Republicans who participated before this event. These findings indicate common enemies may not reduce inter-group conflict in highly polarized societies, and contribute to a growing number of studies that find evidence of asymmetric political polarization in the United States. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for research in social psychology, political conflict, and the rapidly expanding field of computational social science.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Reference30 articles.
1. American National Election Study. 2016 Time Series Study.
2. Iyengar, S., Sood, G. & Lelkes, Y. Affect, not ideology: A social identity perspective on polarization. Public Opin. Q. 76, 405–431 (2012).
3. Iyengar, S., Lelkes, Y., Levendusky, M., Malhotra, N. & Westwood, S. J. The origins and consequences of affective polarization in the United States. Annu. Rev. Polit. Sci. 22, 129–146 (2019).
4. Heider, F. Attitudes and cognitive organization. J. Psychol. 21, 107–112 (1946).
5. Simmel, G. Conflict/The Web of Group Affiliations (Free Press, 1955).
Cited by
8 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献