Episode Details

Robb Willer studies social and political divides, and maybe more importantly, he tries to find ways to overcome them. In our conversation, he shares his personal background, unpacks persuasion strategies that cut across political lines, and reveals the results of a major new study in his lab that tested a bunch of strategies for reducing political animosity and encouraging people to value democracy over other political attitudes.

Some things that come up in the episode:

• How moral values can be used in persuasion to appeal to audiences across the political spectrum (Feinberg & Willer, 2019; also see this New York Times article)
• The value of correcting "meta-perceptions" as a way to curb political prejudice (Mernyk, Pink, Druckman, & Willer, 2022)
• A "mega-study" testing 25 interventions to address political animosity and democratic attitudes (Voelkel et al., working paper)

Audio for the opening of the show from BBC, CBC, and CNN.

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