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Respect and political disagreement: Can intergroup respect reduce the biased evaluation of outgroup arguments?

ABSTRACT: Past research indicates that in political debates the same arguments are judged very differently depending on the perceiver's own position on the issue, because positions on controversial issues are often tied to collective identities. In this article, we test the assumption that equality-based respect from an opposing opinion-based group can reduce such biases. Results confirmed that identification as an opponent or proponent of a contested issue was negatively related to evaluations of outgroup arguments (Study 1) and that this negative link was no longer significant when intergroup respect was experimentally induced (Study 2). Results support the notion that disagreements over political issues are intergroup conflicts, in which different socio-political groups struggle for recognition, and that approaches that protect collective identities and improve intergroup relations should be employed to de-escalate them.

SUBMITTER: Eschert S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6435108 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Respect and political disagreement: Can intergroup respect reduce the biased evaluation of outgroup arguments?

Eschert Silke S Simon Bernd B

PloS one 20190326 3

Past research indicates that in political debates the same arguments are judged very differently depending on the perceiver's own position on the issue, because positions on controversial issues are often tied to collective identities. In this article, we test the assumption that equality-based respect from an opposing opinion-based group can reduce such biases. Results confirmed that identification as an opponent or proponent of a contested issue was negatively related to evaluations of outgrou ...[more]

PMID: 30913232

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Respect and political disagreement: Can intergroup respect reduce the biased evaluation of outgroup arguments?

Publications

Respect and political disagreement: Can intergroup respect reduce the biased evaluation of outgroup arguments?

Similar Datasets

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