Replication Data for: Cross-Partisan Conversation Reduced Affective Polarization for Republicans and Democrats Even After the Contentious 2020 Election

Recent evidence suggests that cross-partisan conversation can reduce affective polarization. Yet, this evidence comes from experiments that dampen the contentious features of political environments like elections. We expected that cross-partisan conversation will be less effective at reducing affective polarization for partisans who experience partisan group threat from an election loss. We test our theory using a pre-registered experiment where Democrats and Republicans chatted via text online. Participants discussed the 2020 presidential election immediately following Biden’s inauguration, a contentious context that we show differentially amplified feelings of group threat amongst Republicans. However, for both sides, cross-partisan conversations reduced outparty animosity for at least three days, reduced social polarization, but did not increase perceptions of election integrity. Our results suggest that cross-partisan conversation can effectively reduce affective polarization among both Republicans and Democrats even in contentious contexts that amplify group threat.

最近的证据表明，跨党派对话（cross-partisan conversation）可减少情感极化（affective polarization）。然而，此类证据均来自削弱选举等政治环境争议性特征的实验。我们推测，对于因选举失利而感受到党派群体威胁（group threat）的党派成员而言，跨党派对话在减少情感极化方面的效果会较弱。我们通过一项预注册实验（pre-registered experiment）测试了这一理论：民主党人和共和党人通过在线文字进行交流，讨论拜登就职后不久的2020年总统选举——这一争议性情境对共和党人的群体威胁感产生了差异化放大效应。但对双方而言，跨党派对话至少在三天内降低了对立党派敌意（outparty animosity），减少了社会极化（social polarization），却未提升对选举公正性的认知。研究结果表明，即使在放大群体威胁的争议性情境下，跨党派对话仍能有效减少民主党与共和党双方的情感极化。