TY - UNPB

T1 - The general fault in our fault lines

AU - Ruggeri, Kai

AU - Većkalov, Bojana

AU - Bojanić, Lana

AU - Andersen, Thomas Lind

AU - Ashcroft-Jones, Sarah

AU - Ayacaxli, Nélida

AU - Arroyo, Paula Barea

AU - Berge, Mari Louise

AU - Bjørndal, Ludvig Daae

AU - Bursalıoğlu, Aslı

AU - Bühler, Vanessa

AU - Čadek, Martin

AU - Çetinçelik, Melis

AU - Clay, Georgia

AU - Cortijos-Bernabeu, Anna

AU - Damnjanović, Kaja

AU - Dugue, Tatianna M.

AU - Esberg, Maya

AU - Serna, Celia Esteban

AU - Felder, Ezra N.

AU - Friedemann, Maja

AU - Villanueva, Darianna I. Frontera

AU - Gale, Patricia

AU - Garcia-Garzon, Eduardo

AU - Geiger, Sandra Jeanette

AU - George, Leya

AU - Girardello, Allegra

AU - Gracheva, Aleksandra

AU - Gracheva, Anastasia

AU - Guillory, Carolina Diaz

AU - Hecht, Marlene

AU - Herte, Katharina

AU - Hubená, Barbora

AU - Ingalls, William

AU - Jakob, Lea

AU - Janssens, Margo

AU - Jarke, Hannes

AU - Kácha, Ondřej

AU - Kalinova, Kalina Nikolova

AU - Karakasheva, Ralitsa

AU - Khorrami, Peggah

AU - Lep, Zan

AU - Lins, Samuel

AU - Lofthus, Ingvild Sandø

AU - Mamede, Salomé

AU - Mareva, Silvana

AU - Mascarenhas, Mafalda F.

AU - McGill, Lucy

AU - Morales-Izquierdo, Sara

AU - Moltrecht, Bettina

AU - Mueller, Tasja Sophie

AU - Musetti, Marzia

AU - Nelsson, Joakim

AU - Otto, Thiago

AU - Paul, Alessandro

AU - Pavlović, Irena

AU - Petrović, Marija

AU - Popović, Dora

AU - Prinz, Gerhard M.

AU - Razum, Josip

AU - Sakelariev, Ivaylo

AU - Samuels, Vivian

AU - Sanguino, Inés

AU - Say, Nicolas

AU - Schuck, Jakob

AU - Soysal, Irem

AU - Todsen, Anna Louise

AU - Tünte, Markus R.

AU - Vdovic, Milica

AU - Vintr, Jáchym

AU - Vovko, Maja

AU - Vranka, Marek Albert

AU - Wagner, Lisa

AU - Wilkins, Lauren

AU - Willems, Manou

AU - Wisdom, Elizabeth

AU - Yosifova, Aleksandra

AU - Zeng, Sandy

AU - Ahmed, Mahmoud A.

AU - Dwarkanath, Twinkle

AU - Cikara, Mina

AU - Lees, Jeffrey Martin

AU - Folke, Tomas

N1 - (Ekstern)

PY - 2020/9/8

Y1 - 2020/9/8

N2 - A pervading global narrative suggests that political polarisation is increasing in the US and around the world. Beliefs in increased polarisation impact individual and group behaviours regardless of whether they are accurate or not. One driver of polarisation are beliefs about how members of the out-group perceive us, known as group meta-perceptions. A 2020 study by Lees and Cikara in US samples suggests that not only are out-group meta-perceptions highly inaccurate, but informing people of this inaccuracy reduces negative beliefs about the out-group. Given the importance of these findings for understanding and mitigating polarisation, it is essential to test to what extent they generalise to other countries. We assess that generalisability by replicating two of the original experimentsin 10,207 participants from 26 countries in the first experiment and 10 in the second. We do this by studying local group divisions, which we refer to as fault lines. In line with our hypotheses, results show that the pattern found in the US broadly generalises, with greater heterogeneity explained by specific policies rather than between-country differences. The replication of a simple disclosure intervention in the second experiment yielded a modest reduction in negative motive attributions to the out-group, similar to the original study. These findings indicate first that inaccurate and negative group meta-perceptions are exhibited in a large number of countries, not only the US, and that informing individuals of their misperceptions can yield positive benefits for intergroup relations. The generalisability of these findings highlights a robust phenomenon with major implications for political discourse worldwide

AB - A pervading global narrative suggests that political polarisation is increasing in the US and around the world. Beliefs in increased polarisation impact individual and group behaviours regardless of whether they are accurate or not. One driver of polarisation are beliefs about how members of the out-group perceive us, known as group meta-perceptions. A 2020 study by Lees and Cikara in US samples suggests that not only are out-group meta-perceptions highly inaccurate, but informing people of this inaccuracy reduces negative beliefs about the out-group. Given the importance of these findings for understanding and mitigating polarisation, it is essential to test to what extent they generalise to other countries. We assess that generalisability by replicating two of the original experimentsin 10,207 participants from 26 countries in the first experiment and 10 in the second. We do this by studying local group divisions, which we refer to as fault lines. In line with our hypotheses, results show that the pattern found in the US broadly generalises, with greater heterogeneity explained by specific policies rather than between-country differences. The replication of a simple disclosure intervention in the second experiment yielded a modest reduction in negative motive attributions to the out-group, similar to the original study. These findings indicate first that inaccurate and negative group meta-perceptions are exhibited in a large number of countries, not only the US, and that informing individuals of their misperceptions can yield positive benefits for intergroup relations. The generalisability of these findings highlights a robust phenomenon with major implications for political discourse worldwide

U2 - 10.31219/osf.io/xvksa

DO - 10.31219/osf.io/xvksa

M3 - Preprint

SP - 1

EP - 25

BT - The general fault in our fault lines

PB - OSF-PREPRINTS

ER -