Exaggerated meta-perceptions predict intergroup hostility between American political partisans

Abstract

<jats:p>People’s actions toward a competitive outgroup can be motivated not only by their perceptions of the outgroup, but also by how they think the outgroup perceives the ingroup (i.e., meta-perceptions). Here, we examine the prevalence, accuracy, and consequences of meta-perceptions among American political partisans. Using a representative sample (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic>= 1,056) and a longitudinal convenience sample (<jats:italic>n</jats:italic>= 2,707), we find that Democrats and Republicans equally dislike and dehumanize each other but think that the levels of prejudice and dehumanization held by the outgroup party are approximately twice as strong as actually reported by a representative sample of Democrats and Republicans. Overestimations of negative meta-perceptions were consistent across samples over time and between demographic subgroups but were modulated by political ideology: More strongly liberal Democrats and more strongly conservative Republicans were particularly prone to exaggerate meta-perceptions. Finally, we show that meta-prejudice and meta-dehumanization are independently associated with the desire for social distance from members of the outgroup party and support for policies that harm the country and flout democratic norms to favor the ingroup political party. This research demonstrates that partisan meta-perceptions are subject to a strong negativity bias with Democrats and Republicans agreeing that the shadow of partisanship is much larger than it actually is, which fosters mutual intergroup hostility.</jats:p>

Research note: Examining false beliefs about voter fraud in the wake of the 2020 Presidential Election

“…This was followed by questions about who they believe to have won the election and opinions about fraud, after informing them that that "news organizations (e.g., Fox News, NBC, ABC, the Associated Press) have called the election in favor of Joe Biden", they were asked the questions about Trump conceding/losing court challenges (Figure 3 -see supplement). Next, participants completed three partisan spite (Moore-Berg et al, 2020) and four partisan violence (Kalmoe & Mason, 2019) questions in a random order. As noted in Figure 5, the questions used "Democrat" and "Republican" depending on which was the in-party and out-party for the individual (and, hence, only those who indicated an affiliation with either party were administered the questions).…”

Understanding and Combating Misperceived Polarization

“…While we may have strong stereotypes about both the other party and our own, our beliefs about "us" are at least still modulated by the details of the local context. Examining how partisan extremity affects the accuracy of ingroup meta-perception is a fruitful avenue of future research, as recent work suggests ideological extremity exacerbates the inaccuracy of outgroup meta-perception among Democrats and Republicans (Moore-Berg, Ankori-Karlinsky, et al, 2020).…”

“…For example, Democrats and Republicans with the most extreme ideological attitudes were the most likely to overestimate the levels of prejudice and dehumanization their respective out-party held toward them. These inaccurate meta-perceptions were, in turn, uniquely associated with a willingness to violate democratic norms in favor of ingroup loyalty (Moore-Berg, Ankori-Karlinsky, et al, 2020). Inaccurate meta-perceptions also play a role outside the domain of politics.…”

Intergroup Contact Reduces Dehumanization and Meta-Dehumanization: Cross-Sectional, Longitudinal, and Quasi-Experimental Evidence From 16 Samples in Five Countries

“…Similarly, Kteily & Bruneau (2017a), found among members of Latinx and Muslim minorities in the United States that feelings of being dehumanized by Americans predicted reciprocal feelings of dehumanization, which mediated increased support for violent, versus nonviolent, collective action. Most recently, meta-dehumanization expressed by American Democrats and Republicans has been shown to predict support for intergroup hostility, again mediated through higher levels of outgroup dehumanization (Moore-Berg et al, 2020). However, given that the negativity of meta-perceptions tends to be exaggerated (Frey & Tropp, 2006;Moore-Berg et al, 2020), providing individuals with the opportunity to engage directly with the outgroup and hear their perspectives may effectively diminish intergroup hostility by correcting overly pessimistic meta-perceptions.…”

“…Most recently, meta-dehumanization expressed by American Democrats and Republicans has been shown to predict support for intergroup hostility, again mediated through higher levels of outgroup dehumanization (Moore-Berg et al, 2020). However, given that the negativity of meta-perceptions tends to be exaggerated (Frey & Tropp, 2006;Moore-Berg et al, 2020), providing individuals with the opportunity to engage directly with the outgroup and hear their perspectives may effectively diminish intergroup hostility by correcting overly pessimistic meta-perceptions. For example, Kteily et al (2016) demonstrated that Americans harbor strong negative meta-perceptions with respect to Muslims-believing that Muslims both dislike and dehumanize Americanswhich is at odds with Pew surveys collected over the last decade indicating that Muslims across the world have positive views of Americans (Diamant, 2017).…”