Talking across the Aisle

Luca Braghieri, Peter Schwardmann and Egon Tripodi

No 19753, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: We conduct an experiment in which U.S. Democrats and Republicans engage in naturalistic video conversations about policy-relevant facts. We investigate self-selection into politically homogeneous interactions and how these interactions affect information aggregation and affective polarization. Participants exhibit a preference against cross-partisan conversations, explained by lower expectations about their informational and hedonic value. Indeed, participants find it significantly more difficult to extract knowledge from counter-partisans and, thus, tend to learn less from them. In contrast, cross-partisan interactions prove more enjoyable than anticipated and lastingly reduce affective polarization. Overall, cross-partisan contact may better serve to reduce affective polarization than to improve information aggregation.

Keywords: Echo; chambers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 D83 D9 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-12
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