The Other Side

23 Oct

Samantha Laine Perfas of the Christian Science Monitor interviewed me about the gap between perceptions and reality for her podcast ‘perception gaps’ over a month ago. You can listen to the episode here (Episode 2).

The Monitor has also made the transcript of the podcast available here. Some excerpts:

“Differences need not be, and we don’t expect them to be, reasons why people dislike each other. We are all different from each other, right. …. Each person is unique, but we somehow seem to make a big fuss about certain differences and make less of a fuss about certain other differences.”

One way to fix it:

If you know so little and assume so much, … the answer is [to] simply stop doing that. Learn a little bit, assume a little less, and see where the conversation goes.

The interview is based on the following research:

  1. Partisan Composition (pdf) and Measuring Shares of Partisan Composition (pdf)
  2. Affect Not Ideology (pdf)
  3. Coming to Dislike (pdf)
  4. All in the Eye of the Beholder (pdf)

Related blog posts and think pieces:

  1. Party Time
  2. Pride and Prejudice
  3. Loss of Confidence
  4. How to read Ahler and Sood