Seeing the other side: Perspective taking and the moderation of extremity

• A novel form of perspective taking decreased attitude polarization among partisans.
• The approach worked even on strong attitudes about highly polarizing issues.
• Depolarization depended on accountability to the target of perspective taking.
• Depolarization also depended on personal contact with the perspective-taking target.

Recognizing the reasonableness of others' positions is important for conflict reduction, but is notoriously hard. We tested a perspective-taking approach to decreasing attitude entrenchment. Participants were held accountable in a task in which they wrote about a controversial issue from the perspective of a partner with an opposing viewpoint. This approach was effective at changing views on controversial issues—in Study 1 on weight discrimination, an issue participants were unlikely to have thought much about, and in Study 2 on abortion, where beliefs tend to be more deeply held. Studies 3 and 4 showed this change only took place under conditions where participants met the individual with an opposing view in person, and where that individual would see the perspective-taking effort. These results suggest that it is possible to reduce attitude entrenchment by encouraging people to think about the opposing perspective of another, as long as there is real contact and accountability.