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.