Enhancing curiosity with a wise intervention to improve political conversations and relationships.

ABSTRACT: Political, ideological, and religious ideas divide us all. Can we bridge that gap to promote more productive discussions? We think so. We present a multi-study research program in hopes of introducing greater curiosity and less defensiveness in political conversations. Here we show, first, that political curiosity is associated with indicators of positive political conversations, such as having goals to learn and a lesser desire to be socially distant from people with different views. Second, we identified an antecedent of political curiosity: perceiving others in one's political party as open-minded and intellectually humble. Regardless of political orientation (liberal or conservative), people showed a bias toward assuming their group was less open-minded and humble than reality. Third,

SUBMITTER: Kashdan TB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12623441 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature