Political divide too hot? Here are some cooling solutions

Remember Utah’s 2020 Utah gubernatorial race?
In the midst of a contentious presidential campaign, Republican gubernatorial candidate Spencer Cox and his Democrat opponent Chris Peterson appeared together in a 30-second ad affirming their commitment to democracy — even while extending mutual respect.
“We can disagree without hating each other,” said Cox in the 2020 spot.
“Win or lose,” added Peterson, “in Utah, we work together.”
The Cox-Peterson ad resonated across Utah and far beyond the state’s borders — demonstrating that opposing candidates with opposing platforms can still commit to uphold democratic processes and treat one another civilly.
Now research reveals that the so-called #StandUnited ad featuring Cox and Peterson can even mellow political hostility.
Utah’s #StandUnited ad is highlighted in a recently published Stanford University study dubbed the Strengthening Democracy Challenge.
Published in Science magazine, the study offers insights and practical suggestions for voters, political leaders, tech platforms and many others to help cool the heat of partisan divisions — even while strengthening the country’s commitment to democracy.
The work of two University of Utah professors — Ben Lyons and Samantha Moore-Berg — is prominent in the Stanford study.
The research was formulated after Stanford’s Polarization and Social Change Lab (PaSCL) issued a call to anyone — academics, psychologists, communication scholars, political scientists or members of the general public — to submit political “polarization intervention” ideas for a “megastudy.”
Over 250 examples of political polarization interventions were submitted. From that massive number, researchers identified 25 interventions “that would be the most effective at actually reducing toxic polarization,” Moore-Berg told the Deseret News.
The PaSCL research team, along with scholars from several prominent universities, tested those 25 “treatments” on a diverse sample of more than 32,000 Americans.
Counted among the 25 polarization interventions was Utah’s #StandUnited ad and a 4-minute video produced by researchers in collaboration with the Boston-based nonprofit Beyond Conflict that reveals misperceptions that folks with opposing political convictions have of each other.
The University of Utah’s Lyons conducted the #StandUnited research, while his campus colleague, Moore-Berg, played a key role in creating the Beyond Conflict video.
Both the #StandUnited ad research and the Beyond Conflict video were analyzed to be two of just three interventions found to be effective in tempering a trio of divisive elements prominent in today’s American political culture: partisan animosity; anti-democratic attitudes; and support for political violence.
Lyons said the Cox/Peterson ad resonated with viewers in Utah and beyond because the spot featured two prominent figures from opposing political parties modeling positive behavior.
“They’re giving us an exemplar of cooperation and respect — and that’s something we can take into our own lives,” said Lyons. “That’s rare, so I think it works because it stands out.”
In the Beyond Conflict video, participants first reveal their own political affiliations. Then they are asked what folks in the “other political party” would say about them?
“Typically, they said, ‘Well, they say that we disagree on so much or they dehumanize us so much’,” said Moore-Berg. “And then we give them the actual data that says that these misperceptions are actually overstated.
“People are really surprised by this … we are so much more alike than we thought we are.”
By breaking such misperception barriers, she added, “we can finally start to listen to the other side and be willing to engage with the other side with less animosity. And we feel less nervous about who is on the other side.”
Today’s multiformed media can also exacerbate extreme political attitudes.
“The people who have the most extreme attitudes are the ones that often are getting the most press,” said Moore-Berg. “So when we’re only exposed to the extreme attitudes on both sides, we are more likely to have misperceptions about those on the other side.”
The promising news? Such misperceptions can be corrected, according to the research.
“The goal is not to make everybody agree on everything — but it’s come to a point where we are unwilling to even be in the same room as somebody who disagrees with us,” said Moore-Berg. “If we can correct these misperceptions to help people be willing to interact and collaborate with each other, then we’ve realized the goal of what we’re trying to do here.
“We’re trying to create a more peaceful society that doesn’t resort to extremes in order to make political points.”
The interventions highlighted in the recent Stanford study offer several takeaways that seem especially relevant during another turbulent election period happening in real time, said Lyons.
First, always examine one’s own assumptions “about what members of the other party are like.”
Second, a person need not be a high-profile political candidate to model pro-democratic attitudes.
“Every one of us can model our own support for democratic norms. Maybe that can have a knock-on effect down the line,” said Lyons.
And lastly, avoid the impulse to simply remain silent. That too can spawn misperceptions.
“If you’re more willing to speak out on things you actually believe in, you can correct the public sphere. The public’s perceptions of levels of support might be more accurate over time,” he said.