People exhibit a general unwillingness to engage others on social issues for which they disagree (e.g., political elections, police funding, vaccine mandates, etc.), a phenomenon that contributes to the political polarization vexing societies today. Previous research has largely attributed this unwillingness to the perception that such counterattitudinal targets are extreme, certain, and/or difficult to change on these topics. However, the present research offers an additional theoretical explanation. First, we introduce a less studied perception of targets, their affective-cognitive attitude basis (i.e., the degree to which an attitude is seemingly based on emotions versus reasons) that is critical in determining engagement willingness. Specifically, perceivers are less willing to engage with targets who are perceived to hold an affective (vs. cognitive) attitude basis on a topic, because these targets are inferred to have low attitudinal openness on it (i.e., expected to be unlikely to genuinely “hear out” the perceiver). Second, we use a series of multimethod studies with varied U.S. samples to show why this person perception process is central to understanding counterattitudinal engagement. Compared to proattitudinal targets, perceivers on both sides of an issue ascribe more affective (vs. cognitive) attitude bases to rival (counterattitudinal) targets, which cues inferences of reduced attitudinal openness, thereby diminishing people's willingness to engage with these individuals.

人们普遍不愿意让他人参与他们不同意的社会问题（例如，政治选举、警察资金、疫苗授权等），这种现象导致了当今社会的政治两极分化。先前的研究在很大程度上将这种不情愿归因于这样一种观念，即这种反态度的目标在这些主题上是极端的、确定的和/或难以改变的。然而，本研究提供了额外的理论解释。首先，我们介绍了一个较少研究的目标感知，它们的情感认知态度基础（即，态度似乎基于情绪与原因的程度）对于确定参与意愿至关重要。具体来说，感知者不太愿意与被认为对某个主题持有情感（与认知）态度基础的目标互动，因为这些目标被推断为态度开放度低在它上面（即，预计不太可能真正“听到”感知者）。其次，我们使用一系列针对不同美国样本的多方法研究来说明为什么这种人的感知过程对于理解反态度参与至关重要。与原态度目标相比，问题双方的感知者将更多的情感（与认知）态度基础归因于竞争（反态度）目标，这暗示了态度开放性降低的推论，从而降低了人们与这些人交往的意愿。