Brief, unmoderated cross-partisan discussions can reduce political polarization

Brief, unmoderated cross-partisan discussions can reduce political polarization | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Brief, unmoderated cross-partisan discussions can reduce political polarization Jona de Jong This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3069391/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 05 Jan, 2024 Read the published version in Communications Psychology → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Can cross-partisan discussions reduce political polarization? Existing research studies lengthy, moderated interactions that avoid substantive disagreement. This focus hampers scalability, limits understanding of how effects are achieved, and leaves open whether results travel to real-world, polarized contexts. This article reports results from an experiment in which 580 UK Labour and Conservative party voters were matched to have a ten-minute, unmoderated chat discussion about a contentious policy issue. The discussion immediately reduced affective polarization, moderated issue opinions, and durably increased willingness to engage in cross-partisan discussions. Absent moderation, most respondents naturally engaged in conciliatory behaviour by sharing personal experiences, including each other in the discussion and attempting to find common ground. I also show that this type of discussion exercise is scalable. The platform was voluntarily used by more than 100.000 people in the five weeks before the Dutch 2021 parliamentary elections, though almost no data was collected. Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Politics Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Communication Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Society Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files deJongAppendixJune15.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 05 Jan, 2024 Read the published version in Communications Psychology → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-3069391","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":213749028,"identity":"fcea0d3f-6438-45ca-a47d-d7ef9cfccb8c","order_by":0,"name":"Jona de Jong","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAAA2klEQVRIiWNgGAWjYBACxgYQycbADGI/YGCQIE0LswFRWiCADUISp565vffgB4YyG3Z+6fZrFR/bLBj4JRIIOKznXLIEw7k0Zsk5Z8puzmyTYJCcQUjLjBwDCca2w8wGN3LSbvMCtRjcIKzF+Adj23+wluK/QC32RGgxA9pyAKgl/RgzI8gWwn45Y2aRcC6ZWXJGDrNkzzkJHokzD/BrMWzvMb7xocwumV8i/eGHH2V1cvztBGwxbAASQDXJDAw8BiABHvzqgUAeStsxMLATcNAoGAWjYBSMWAAANJQ9eavkZ9UAAAAASUVORK5CYII=","orcid":"https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6942-4547","institution":"European University Institute","correspondingAuthor":true,"submittingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jona","middleName":"","lastName":"de Jong","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2023-06-15 19:46:03","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3069391/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3069391/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[{"content":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-023-00051-8","type":"published","date":"2024-01-05T05:00:00+00:00"}],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":49254760,"identity":"a49eec1e-b87b-4519-8135-c54c666f58f6","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2024-01-06 08:13:57","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":1539606,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"deJongNatureCommsJune15.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3069391/v1_covered_2fc2d5d9-a833-4d00-8cbd-4ba2d9bf56e0.pdf"},{"id":39888872,"identity":"a600464c-24a9-4a2b-9286-4a19a0f031cc","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2023-07-12 03:55:01","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":872381,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"deJongAppendixJune15.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-3069391/v1/1c333b5b34745aa18154e37d.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"There is \u003cb\u003eNO\u003c/b\u003e Competing Interest.","formattedTitle":"Brief, unmoderated cross-partisan discussions can reduce political polarization","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":true,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nature-portfolio","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"","title":"Nature Portfolio","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":false,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3069391/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-3069391/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"Can cross-partisan discussions reduce political polarization? Existing research studies lengthy, moderated interactions that avoid substantive disagreement. This focus hampers scalability, limits understanding of how effects are achieved, and leaves open whether results travel to real-world, polarized contexts. This article reports results from an experiment in which 580 UK Labour and Conservative party voters were matched to have a ten-minute, unmoderated chat discussion about a contentious policy issue. The discussion immediately reduced affective polarization, moderated issue opinions, and durably increased willingness to engage in cross-partisan discussions. Absent moderation, most respondents naturally engaged in conciliatory behaviour by sharing personal experiences, including each other in the discussion and attempting to find common ground. I also show that this type of discussion exercise is scalable. The platform was voluntarily used by more than 100.000 people in the five weeks before the Dutch 2021 parliamentary elections, though almost no data was collected.","manuscriptTitle":"Brief, unmoderated cross-partisan discussions can reduce political polarization","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2023-07-12 03:54:56","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-3069391/v1","editorialEvents":[],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"communications-psychology","isNatureJournal":true,"hasQc":false,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"commspsychol","sideBox":"Learn more about [Communications Psychology](http://www.nature.com/commspsychol/)","snPcode":"44271","submissionUrl":"https://mts-commspsychol.nature.com/cgi-bin/main.plex","title":"Communications Psychology","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"ejp","reportingPortfolio":"Communications Series","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"2184a1c4-8068-4afc-98e8-fa154697eeee","owner":[],"postedDate":"July 12th, 2023","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"published-in-journal","subjectAreas":[{"id":22777140,"name":"Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Politics"},{"id":22777141,"name":"Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Communication"},{"id":22777142,"name":"Scientific community and society/Social sciences/Society"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2024-01-06T08:13:42+00:00","versionOfRecord":{"articleIdentity":"rs-3069391","link":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-023-00051-8","journal":{"identity":"communications-psychology","isVorOnly":false,"title":"Communications Psychology"},"publishedOn":"2024-01-05 05:00:00","publishedOnDateReadable":"January 5th, 2024"},"versionCreatedAt":"2023-07-12 03:54:56","video":"","vorDoi":"10.1038/s44271-023-00051-8","vorDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1038/s44271-023-00051-8","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-3069391","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-3069391","identity":"rs-3069391","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"cBFmMYwuxLRRLfASyISRj","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}