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Political attitudes in the U.S. have become more polarized in recent years. Unfortunately, many tactics of backfire or decay within days. Often people do not want to admit that they are in error and become motivated to dismiss evidence and arguments contrary to their views.

New research by Joshua Kalla and David Broockman found effective ways of changing exclusionary attitudes towards unauthorized immigrants and people using a non-judgmental exchange of narratives.

It’s no secret that the United States is currently experiencing strong division. At a rally in Cleveland, Ohio, for , the sitting president of the United States, two supporters came wearing shirts that read, “I’d rather be a Russian than a Democrat.” This occurred only months after Thomas Graham, senior director for Russia on the George W. Bush National Security Council staff, described tensions with Russia to be “qualitatively worse than any post-Cold War period.”

A report by Pew Research Center states:

The divisions between Republicans and Democrats on fundamental political values—on government, race, immigration, national security, environmental protection, and other areas—reached record levels during Barack Obama’s presidency. In Donald Trump’s first year as president, these gaps have grown even larger. (p. 5)

One especially divisive topic is immigration. A 2016 study found that Americans had more negative evaluations of “illegal immigrants” than of any other group asked about on the survey, including Muslims, Christian fundamentalists, and transgender people. Such anti-immigrant exclusionary attitudes are typically strong and difficult to change. This hostility can lead to a lack of support for policies that would improve the well-being of undocumented immigrants.

To change voter’s attitudes about immigration, researchers Kalla and Broockman had canvassers approach members of the general population through phone calls or door visits. Here they engaged in a non-judgmental exchange of narratives, which included:

Asking individuals to tell a story of when someone showed them compassion when they needed it

Sharing narratives about immigrants they knew or telling their own experience as an immigrant

Explicitly expressing interest in understanding the participant’s views and experiences

Withholding any negative judgments towards hostile statements aimed at immigrants

Asking participants to draw their own conclusions from the narratives

Addressing any common misconceptions, expressing their support for inclusionary policies, and asking if the conversation had changed the participant’s views

Source: Katie Moum/Unsplash

The goal of the canvassers was “for this non-judgmental exchange of narratives to end with individuals self-generating and explicitly stating aloud implications of the narratives that ran contrary to their previously stated exclusionary attitudes (p. 10).”

This condition, where canvassers were asked to emphasize when the participant had been shown compassion, was compared against an abbreviated and condition. Canvassers in the abbreviated condition simply addressed misconceptions and made supportive arguments.

The researchers found that exchanging narratives was significantly more likely to change someone’s view than simply giving arguments, with the effect lasting for at least four months. They also replicated their findings targeting transphobia.

While effect sizes of d = 0.04 and d = 0.08 are small, the authors stated,

A campaign looking for strategies to change aggregate public opinion may have no choice but to pursue strategies with small effects; few if any other campaign tactics have been rigorously shown to have lasting, meaningful effects in the field on public opinion. (p. 31)

With political opinions becoming more and more polarized, it is easy to get discouraged. toward immigrants and transgender people, with resistance to inclusive policies, is a challenge worldwide. Reducing negative attitudes toward an outgroup can be difficult. Thanks to the insights from researchers Kalla and Broockman, there may be hope in bridging a political divide using compassion, non-judgment, and understanding.