Are people who adhere to political ideas opposed to ours ill-intentioned? Misinformed? Where then do they have bad values? An analysis carried out in the United States by the University of North Carolina and McGill University shows rather that they are considered… as being idiots. The Press discussed this with Rachel Hartman, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-author of the article ” People See Political Opponents As More Stupid Than Evil », published in the scientific journal Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
Q. Were you surprised by the fact that people don’t think that the supporters of the other side are fundamentally bad people, or is that something you expected?
A. I was a little surprised, because much of the political discourse seems to be rooted in the differences in values between supporters of different political parties. But at the same time, I think the results make sense. In general, people tend to believe that everyone is good, deep down. I think when people encounter someone who disagrees with them on important issues, or votes for different candidates, they struggle with cognitive dissonance – on the one hand, people are good, but on the other hand, this political adversary is doing something wrong. An easy way to resolve this dissonance is to view the adversary as either stupid or brainwashed (or both). That way, it’s not really their fault if they’re antivax, or pro-choice, or whatever.
Q. In a way, your study seems to give hope. People don’t think the other side is evil or even less human than them, just dumber. Is this the right way to see things?
A. That’s an excellent question, and I’m not sure it’s such a good thing. On the one hand, I agree that not seeing your opponents as evil beings is a good thing. On the other hand, when we dismiss the other side as stupid, we fail to recognize their action and authenticity. Considering that someone who disagrees with you doesn’t really mean it, deep down, is demeaning and dehumanizing. I think we need to do more work in this area to really understand what it means to see our opponents in this way.
A. In your opinion, what would be a positive measure to reduce the political divide that we observe in Canada, the United States and elsewhere in the world?
Reducing political animosity is a difficult problem, and there are no easy solutions. Many of our institutions and our media are designed to foster animosity between supporters of different political orientations, and changing mentalities one by one is probably not an option. As a psychologist, and given the findings of our analysis, we can try to change the way we view our political opponents by recognizing the positive values that drive them to think, speak, and behave the way they do. Even if people are on the wrong track, they can still act according to values that are genuine. And even if these values are different from ours, we can still recognize that they are good. Once we see our opponents as genuine people with sincere points of view, we can have conversations with them and recognize the value of having different points of view on important issues.