Cross-partisan discussions reduced political polarization between UK voters, but less so when they disagreed

Abstract

Can brief, unmoderated cross-partisan discussions reduce political polarization, even when partisans disagree on the issue under discussion? This article reports results from an experiment that matched 582 UK Labour and Conservative party voters for a ten-minute, unmoderated chat discussion about a contentious issue in a wait-list control design. Issue disagreement between discussing partisans randomly varied, and was visible throughout the discussion. Results show that after the discussion, out-partisan sympathy and willingness to have cross-partisan discussions increased. There was no statistically significant effect on opinions. The effect on sympathy was lower when partisans’ issue opinions were further apart. Treatment effects correlate with reported experiences of perspective-getting, inclusion in the discussion, commonality and reduced misperceptions. Conservative respondents about to discuss immigration softened their views just prior to the discussion.