Durably reducing partisan animosity through multiple scalable treatments.

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Political Science
• Communication Studies

Background:

• Existing research identifies strategies to reduce animosity between political partisans.
• The scalability and durability of these strategies in everyday life remain underexplored.
• Partisan animosity poses a significant challenge to social cohesion in many societies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the durable and scalable impact of specific interventions on partisan animosity.
• To determine if treatments can reduce animosity toward both general and personally known political opponents.
• To bridge the gap between laboratory findings and real-world applications for reducing political division.

Main Methods:

• A longitudinal survey experiment was conducted.
• Participants were exposed to three brief, scalable interventions over one week.
• Interventions focused on positive intergroup interactions, accurate information exchange, and highlighting cross-party similarities.

Main Results:

• Exposure to the treatments significantly reduced partisan animosity.
• These reductions in animosity were durable, persisting for at least one month post-intervention.
• Treatments effectively ameliorated animosity toward both hypothetical outparty members and specific, personally known outparty individuals.

Conclusions:

• Scalable, brief interventions can durably reduce partisan animosity in real-world settings.
• The findings offer promising strategies for mitigating social divisions and fostering intergroup understanding.
• The study demonstrates the potential for interventions to impact sentiments toward both abstract groups and specific interpersonal relationships.