Why Do I Hate Thee? Conflict Misperceptions and Intergroup Mistrust

Abstract

Members of partisan social groups often exaggerate how much their own opinions differ from those of their rivals. In the present two studies, partisans estimated their own and their rivals' attitudes toward different issues related to the social conflict and also made a variety of evaluative judgments about their own and the rival group. The authors found that (a) partisans perceive more disagreement with their rivals about values that are central to their own sides' ideological position than those that are central to their rivals' position and (b) perceptions of disagreement about the partisans' own central values are what predicts partisans' global evaluations of members of the outgroup (e.g., disliking, trait stereotypes, perceived similarity). Furthermore, partisans believed their adversaries were motivated by an opposition to the partisans' own core values rather than by promotion of the adversaries' core values. Discussion concentrates on the theoretical and applied implications of these findings.

Suspicious spirits, flexible minds: When distrust enhances creativity.

“…At first glance, it seems reasonable to assume that distrust yields increased stereotyping and discrimination. In line with this intuition, distrust is usually associated more closely with outgroups than ingroups (cf., Chambers & Melnyk, 2006;Munro, Weih, & Tsai, 2010;Schütte & Kessler, 2007;Voci, 2006). On the other hand, the findings on the cognitive concomitants of distrust from Schul andcolleagues (2004, 2008) and the findings presented here seem to converge on the notion that distrust makes people "think outside the box"-a tendency that is fairly incompatible with stereotyping.…”

Political Identity and Trust

“…Social psychology research (see, e.g., Chambers and Melnyk, 2006) shows that individuals of di¤erent partisan identity hold perceptions of large disagreements with opponents in core values such as abortion, while in reality opinions and actions are more similar than perceived (Mason 2014). We …nd that, overall, our evidence is consistent with this observation.…”

The Moral Stereotypes of Liberals and Conservatives: Exaggeration of Differences across the Political Spectrum

“…Examining co-perceptions of conflicting groups such as pro-life/pro-choice and hawks/doves, Chambers and Melnyk [40] found that partisans saw their adversaries as motivated by an opposition to their own core values, rather than being motivated by promotion of the adversaries' values. This is consistent with the moral stereotypes that liberals appear to have of conservatives: liberals see conservatives as being motivated by an opposition to liberals' core values of compassion and fairness, as well as being motivated by their own (non-moral) values of ingroup loyalty, respect for authorities and traditions, and spiritual purity (they may be particularly likely to focus on issues in which these values come into conflict).…”

“…Chambers and Melnyk [40] conclude: “Partisan group members suffer the misapprehension that their adversaries work to actively and willfully oppose their own sides' interests rather than promoting the values that are central to their adversaries' doctrine…it is this perception that may spawn the feelings of distrust and animosity that partisans feel toward their rivals and may ultimately fuel conflict between partisan groups” (p.1309). In this study, we focused on the moral values of ideological opponents, and their perceptions of the moral values of either side, in order to understand the moral “distrust and animosity” endemic to the liberal-conservative culture war.…”