Publications
Publications
- Forthcoming
- Psychological Science
Underestimating Counterparts' Learning Goals Impairs Conflictual Conversations
By: Hanne Collins, Charles A. Dorison, Julia A. Minson and Francesca Gino
Abstract
Given the difficulty people have engaging with disagreeing views across contexts—from political discussions to workplace conflicts—it is critical to understand how conflictual conversation can be improved. While previous work has focused on strategies to change individual-level mindsets (e.g., encouraging open-mindedness), we investigated the role of partisans’ beliefs about their counterparts. Across seven pre-registered studies (N=2,614), people consistently underestimated how willing disagreeing counterparts were to learn about their views (compared to themselves and to agreeing others). Further, this belief strongly predicted greater derogation of attitude opponents and more negative expectations for conflictual conversations. Critically, in both American partisan politics and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a short informational intervention that increased beliefs that counterparts were willing to learn about one’s views decreased derogation and increased willingness to engage in the future. We build on research recognizing the power of the situation to highlight a fruitful new focus for conflict research.
Keywords
Citation
Collins, Hanne, Charles A. Dorison, Julia A. Minson, and Francesca Gino. "Underestimating Counterparts' Learning Goals Impairs Conflictual Conversations." Psychological Science (forthcoming).