UIC video is characterized by a scientific mega-study on political polarization

A video created by two UIC psychology professors reduced toxic political polarization, according to a mega-study published in the latest issue of the journal Science.

The study’s findings come amid a heated political climate ahead of next month’s presidential election. But the project started two years ago.

Michael Pasek and Rebecca Littman of the UIC Department of Psychology co-created the video, which they submitted to Stanford University’s Strengthening Democracy Challenge. It emphasizes that Democrats and Republicans have misconceptions about how their political opponents see them.

In 2022, the competition selected the team’s video as a finalist from over 250 submissions and then tested it alongside 24 other finalist submissions to see which reduced partisan hostilities, anti-democratic attitudes and support for political violence. The UIC video was one of only five that reduced all three target results. More than 32,000 people were surveyed for the mega study.

“Our research shows that we can actually do a lot of good if we take the science out of the lab and work with people in the real world who are experts at delivering emotional and impactful messages.” “That’s really exciting and tells us a lot about how we can be not only effective scientists, but also effective translational scientists who use our science to promote positive social outcomes.”

Since the experiment took place two years ago, UIC researchers and their collaborators have continued to study what makes their video so effective. The video focused on both false polarization — the idea that people from opposing parties overstate their ideological differences on policy issues — and the dehumanization of political opponents.

For a new study that they hope to publish soon, Pasek and Littman teamed up again with filmmaker Wayne Price of Roomtone and academic colleagues to isolate elements of the video and test them against each other.

“One of the benefits of working with a filmmaker is that we have all these different components in the film,” Littman said. “But because of that, there are several things going on, and we don’t know exactly what the key ingredients are that make this work.”

In the new study, they found that the impact of their video was largely due to correcting people’s false beliefs about how much members of the opposing party dehumanized them, as opposed to false beliefs about the level of polarization in relation to them on topics.

“It’s really this deeply affective nature of thinking, that people see you as less than human, that triggers many people’s reaction to toxic polarization,” Pasek said.

Pasek and Littman’s video has also gained traction outside of the Stanford study. Other groups, including a religious organization, have adapted it and used it in their efforts to reduce political polarization.

By participating in the mega-study, Littman and Pasek gained insights that they can use to develop new media interventions to reduce conflict and partisanship around the world.

“I think one of the coolest opportunities for us as researchers is to think together and try to solve really pressing societal problems,” Pasek said. “Scientists often work on their own, the schedule for scientific work is slow and everyone is chiseling away at a problem. But we never all work together to figure out what the best approach is.”

The video was developed in collaboration with Samantha Moore-Berg of the University of Utah, Roman Gallardo of the University of Chicago and Nour Kteily of Northwestern University. Beyond Conflict, a nonprofit organization, helped fund the development of the video.