Moving Forward Together: Partisans’ Motivations for Seeking Out Cross-partisan Contact

Abstract

Affective polarization in American politics is having a detrimental effect on our ability to function as a society, but intergroup contact between people with different political views has the potential to reduce some of the prejudice the two sides have for each other. Unfortunately, many people avoid intergroup contact and not much is known about what motivates someone to seek it out. This dissertation explored what types of people engage in cross-partisan contact and what factors are important to their interest in reaching across the political aisle. Focusing on the population of people who are involved in an organization that fosters cross-partisan contact, I conducted a survey with 362 respondents, which I compared to a nationally representative sample who had answered the same questions. Then I interviewed 27 of those survey respondents about how they became interested in the organization. Overall, I found that MADA participants are more politically active and have stronger negative feelings about the other party than the national population, but they also believe in the necessity of compromise and have some positive views about people on the other side (often stemming from positive views of humanity as a whole). Also, they generally had experienced positive interactions and even friendships with people who were different from themselves, politically or otherwise.