Sep 23, 2025 02:35 AM
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1099051
INTRO: Tune into American politics today, and you'll hear something far more sinister than simple disagreement. The language has escalated: political parties trash talk each other—blaming rival parties for policy failures or even for causing incidents with national implications.
And reducing polarization and "partisan animosity"—the distrust and hatred of the other party—is remarkably difficult, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences evaluating past attempts.
The research was led by the Polarization Research Lab, a nonpartisan team of political scientists from Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania.
"As long as political and media systems reward outrage with votes and viewership—stoking division—any individual-level effort to depolarize is up against a powerful, unending tide," says senior author Sean Westwood, an associate professor of government at Dartmouth and director of the Lab. "This isn't a problem that can be fixed at the grassroots level alone."
To determine if efforts to reduce partisan animosity have a lasting effect, the researchers conducted a massive meta-analysis of 25 previous studies, encompassing 77 different approaches. These "treatments" included everything from correcting misperceptions about the rival party to encouraging conversations with opponents and calls for civility from party leaders.
The study shows that such superficial interventions are largely ineffective.
On average, treatments improved a person's feelings towards the other political party by a mere 5.3%. The authors note this small gain is dwarfed by the 7% increase in partisan animosity observed between the 2016 and 2020 U.S. elections alone.
The results are not only modest, but fleeting. The researchers found that 75% of the initial reduction in hostility disappears after just one week. Within two weeks, the effects are almost completely gone... (MORE - details, no ads)
INTRO: Tune into American politics today, and you'll hear something far more sinister than simple disagreement. The language has escalated: political parties trash talk each other—blaming rival parties for policy failures or even for causing incidents with national implications.
And reducing polarization and "partisan animosity"—the distrust and hatred of the other party—is remarkably difficult, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences evaluating past attempts.
The research was led by the Polarization Research Lab, a nonpartisan team of political scientists from Dartmouth and the University of Pennsylvania.
"As long as political and media systems reward outrage with votes and viewership—stoking division—any individual-level effort to depolarize is up against a powerful, unending tide," says senior author Sean Westwood, an associate professor of government at Dartmouth and director of the Lab. "This isn't a problem that can be fixed at the grassroots level alone."
To determine if efforts to reduce partisan animosity have a lasting effect, the researchers conducted a massive meta-analysis of 25 previous studies, encompassing 77 different approaches. These "treatments" included everything from correcting misperceptions about the rival party to encouraging conversations with opponents and calls for civility from party leaders.
The study shows that such superficial interventions are largely ineffective.
On average, treatments improved a person's feelings towards the other political party by a mere 5.3%. The authors note this small gain is dwarfed by the 7% increase in partisan animosity observed between the 2016 and 2020 U.S. elections alone.
The results are not only modest, but fleeting. The researchers found that 75% of the initial reduction in hostility disappears after just one week. Within two weeks, the effects are almost completely gone... (MORE - details, no ads)
