ABSTRACT This study proposes two complementary writing activities designed to reduce affective polarization and malevolent outgroup attributions. The strategies draw on narrative theorizing and intergroup contact theory. Our intervention is low cost and can be effectively administrated in educational settings to combat the deleterious effects of political polarization. In this four-group between-subjects randomized experiment (n = 179), we found that a first-person perspective taking narrative writing exercise and a common ingroup cooperative narrative writing exercise both reduced political polarization and, thereby, reduced malevolent outgroup attributions. Our results revealed that both activities improved affect toward and perceived similarity with a noxious member of the political outgroup and, as a result, reduced affective political polarization. We discuss the theoretical and applied implications of our findings and encourage educators to adopt activities modeled after our interventions in their classrooms.

中文翻译：

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通过叙事写作减少政治两极分化

摘要这项研究提出了两个互补的写作活动，旨在减少情感上的两极分化和恶意的外来群体归因。这些策略借鉴了叙事理论和群体间接触理论。我们的干预措施成本低廉，可以在教育环境中有效实施，以应对政治两极分化的有害影响。在这个四组受试者间随机实验（n = 179）中，我们发现采取叙事写作练习的第一人称视角和共同的团体合作叙事写作练习都减少了政治上的两极分化，从而减少了恶意的外来群体归因。我们的结果表明，这两种活动都改善了对政治外围群体中有害成员的影响，并使其与之相似，因此，减少情感上的政治分化。我们讨论了研究结果的理论和应用意义，并鼓励教育工作者采用在我们的课堂干预后模仿的活动。