Felt Respect in Political Discussions With Contrary-Minded Others

Abstract

What makes people feel respected or disrespected in political discussions with contrary-minded others? In two studies, participants recalled a situation in which they had engaged in a discussion about a political topic. In Study 1 (n = 126), we used qualitative methods to document a wide array of behaviors and expressions that made people feel (dis)respected in such discussions, and derived a list of nine motives that may have underlain their significance for (dis)respect judgments. Study 2 (n = 523) used network analysis tools to explore how the satisfaction of these candidate motives is associated with felt respect. On the whole, respect was associated with motives for esteem, autonomy, fairness, relatedness, knowledge and having pleasant interactions. In addition, the pattern of associations differed for participants who reported on a discussion with a stranger vs. with someone they knew well, suggesting that the meaning of respect is best understood within the respective interaction context. We discuss pathways towards theoretical accounts of respect that are both broadly applicable and situationally specific.

Effects of intellectual humility in the context of affective polarization: Approaching and avoiding others in controversial political discussions.

“…This is problematic as this avoidance can strengthen ideological segregation and limit opportunities for discussing disagreements (Levy & Razin, 2019;Minozzi et al, 2020). People expect controversial political discussions to be unpleasant (Rothers, 2020) and perceive them as threatening (Koudenburg & Kashima, 2022;Sanchez et al, 2022;Simons & Green, 2018). These negative expectations, in turn, shape approach and avoidance behaviors, with anticipated discomfort in political discussions predicting hesitation to discuss political topics (Geiger et al, 2023;Sanchez et al, 2022).…”

“…The notion that expectations shape approach and avoidance tendencies is well-grounded in theoretical frameworks (Gollwitzer et al, 2018) as well as previous research (Geiger et al, 2023;Koudenburg & Kashima, 2022;Sanchez et al, 2022). Therefore, it is of great interest whether participants' negative expectations about controversial political discussions (Rothers, 2020;Sanchez et al, 2022;Simons & Green, 2018) are influenced by intellectual humility.…”

What makes people feel respected? Toward an integrative psychology of social worth.

“…The extent to which participants feel valued would serve as the dependent variable. Here, it is important to use "content-free" measures with as little semantic connotations beyond feelings of social worth as possible (see Rothers & Cohrs, 2022).…”

“…In a recent study (Rothers & Cohrs, 2022), we explored what makes people feel respected in political discussions with a contrary-minded partner. We measured the extent to which the conversation partner had satisfied a range of interpersonal motives and examined associations between these motive satisfactions and felt (dis)respect.…”

“…For instance, in a study of our own, we found that relatedness (a supposed universal basic motive; Baumeister & Leary, 1995) was barely associated with feelings of respect in discussions when the partner was a stranger. However, when participants had a discussion with someone they were closer with, relatedness and respect were more strongly associated (Rothers & Cohrs, 2022).…”