Replication Data for: Perspective Taking Through Partisan Eyes

How does cross-national empathy influence public attitudes towards international cooperation? Few studies have considered whether the capacity to see the world from the perspective of other actors promotes international cooperation or how partisanship may condition empathy's influence. In this paper, we argue that cross-national empathy increases support for international agreements because seeing issues through the eyes of other states expands the range of considerations that individuals use in forming their attitudes. However, partisan attachments undercut this effect. Across three waves of an original survey experiment covering 6,292 respondents, we find that cues to “step into” the perspective of other states modestly increase aggregate support for international cooperation. But this effect is concentrated entirely among those with weak partisan attachments, regardless of the issue area (climate change or nuclear nonproliferation) and potential partner country (China or India). Our results speak to both the promises and shortcomings of empathy as a device for encouraging cooperative outcomes in international affairs.

跨国共情（cross-national empathy）如何影响公众对国际合作的态度？鲜有研究探讨以其他行为体的视角审视世界的能力是否会推动国际合作，亦或是党派立场如何调节共情的影响效应。本文提出，跨国共情会提升公众对国际协定的支持意愿，原因在于从他国视角审视相关议题，会拓展个体在形成态度时所纳入考量的因素范围。然而，党派归属感会削弱这一效应。针对覆盖6292名受访者的三轮原创调查实验，我们发现，引导受访者“换位思考”他国视角，会适度提升公众对国际合作的总体支持度。但该效应仅集中存在于党派归属感较弱的群体中，无论议题领域为气候变化抑或核不扩散，亦或是潜在伙伴国为中国或印度。本研究结果既阐明了共情作为推动国际事务合作成果的手段所具备的潜力，也指明了其自身存在的局限性。