Summary: A study reveals that Democrats and Republicans overestimate how much the opposing party approves of clearly immoral acts like theft or animal abuse. This “basic morality bias” is evident in social media posts and survey results, leading to increased political animosity.
Learning that opponents condemn basic moral wrongs reduces dehumanization and fosters interest in cross-partisan cooperation. Correcting this bias could combat political dehumanization.
Key Facts:
- Moral Misjudgment: Both parties overestimate opponents’ approval of immoral acts.
- Survey Findings: Correcting this bias reduces dehumanization and promotes cooperation.
- Social Media Impact: Use of words referencing immoral acts has increased, especially post-2016.
Source: PNAS Nexus
Democrats and Republicans overestimate the percentage of people in the opposing party who approve of widely agreed-upon moral wrongs, such as theft or animal abuse, according to a study.
Today, Americans hate their opposing political party more than they love their own party, and political animosity and dehumanization of opposing party members have been on the rise for decades.
Curtis Puryear and colleagues looked for a “basic morality bias” in social media posts from 5,806 political partisans by searching for words that referencd blatantly immoral acts or traits.
Words like “pedophile” and “homicidal” are used increasingly often in political conversations on Twitter (now known as X), especially after 2016.
An online survey of 240 Democrats and 106 Republicans found that people overestimated opponents’ approval of unambiguously immoral behavior, such as cheating on one’s spouse—and the trend persisted in a follow-up study which financially incentivized participants to answer accurately.
In a separate study of 202 students and community members from the southeastern United States, learning that a political opponent condemns basic moral wrongs made participants less likely to dehumanize that opponent and slightly more likely to be interested in getting involved with a cross-partisan organization.
Additional studies indicate that corrections to the basic morality bias make people more willing to work with political opponents and less likely to dehumanize the opposing party in general.
According to the authors, correcting the basic morality bias is an effective approach to combat political dehumanization.
About this political psychology research news
Author: Curtis Puryear
Source: PNAS Nexus
Contact: Curtis Puryear – PNAS Nexus
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“People believe political opponents accept blatant moral wrongs, fueling partisan divides” by Curtis Puryear et al. PNAS Nexus
Abstract
People believe political opponents accept blatant moral wrongs, fueling partisan divides
Efforts to bridge political divides often focus on navigating complex and divisive issues, but eight studies reveal that we should also focus on a more basic misperception: that political opponents are willing to accept basic moral wrongs.
In the United States, Democrats, and Republicans overestimate the number of political outgroup members who approve of blatant immorality (e.g. child pornography, embezzlement).
This “basic morality bias” is tied to political dehumanization and is revealed by multiple methods, including natural language analyses from a large social media corpus and a survey with a representative sample of Americans. Importantly, the basic morality bias can be corrected with a brief, scalable intervention.
Providing information that just one political opponent condemns blatant wrongs increases willingness to work with political opponents and substantially decreases political dehumanization.
