No abstract

Across seven experiments and one survey (N=4282) people consistently overestimated out-group negativity towards the collective behavior of their in-group. This negativity bias in group meta-perception was present across multiple competitive (but not cooperative) intergroup contexts, and appears to be yoked to group psychology more generally; we observed negativity bias for estimation of out-group, anonymized-group, and even fellow in-group members’ perceptions. Importantly, in the context of American politics greater inaccuracy was associated with increased belief that the out-group is motivated by purposeful obstructionism. However, an intervention that informed participants of the inaccuracy of their beliefs reduced negative out-group attributions, and was more effective for those whose group meta-perceptions were more inaccurate. In sum, we highlight a pernicious bias in social judgments of how we believe ‘they’ see ‘our’ behavior, demonstrate how such inaccurate beliefs can exacerbate intergroup conflict, and provide an avenue for reducing the negative effects of inaccuracy.

Beliefs about polarization have significant social consequences, whether accurate or not [1][2][3][4] . They also complicate the study of social issues as reported attitudes might be impacted by inaccurate out-group perceptions and thus make conflicts around a specific issue or policy appear more severe than they actually are 5 . This can result in significant distortions in numerous behaviours, including health, voting and financial choices, each of which has consequences on population wellbeing 6 .There is growing interest in the origins of polarization across populations as well as its features and impacts across communities and society 7,8 . This interest is global and includes both scientific research as well as general public interest 9,10 . As polarization seemingly permeates a growing number of personal and public domains, there is some sense of renewed urgency to understand it and its effects more deeply 11,12 . This includes extending study to understand the extent of polarization on community and global levels.However, with increasing interest in polarization itself, broadening evidence indicates that inaccuracies in perceptions of how the out-group feels about the in-group can be harmful 13 . The origin of these 'meta-perceptions' may be rooted in negative stereotypes that individuals feel have been applied to them, often incorrectly 14 . This results in an inaccurate perception of differences in beliefs and attitudes between groups 15 , which can have negative results for individuals 16,17 . On a population level, such misperceptions can even result in overstated reactions that exacerbate existing biases 18 .To investigate roots and moderators of polarization across groups, Lees and Cikara 13 ran a series of experiments with US participants identifying as Republican or Democrat. In what they refer