Talking Across Boundaries: Intergroup Disagreement and Outgroup Attitudes

• In Event: Exacerbating and Attenuating Intergroup Conflict

Abstract

Policy disputes often overlap with salient social identities. Does hearing counterarguments to a policy position from an out-group member worsen people's attitudes toward that outgroup member? Can a communication style that induces empathy prevent this backlash of negative outgroup evaluations? We use a survey experiment to identify how exposing White respondents to a counterargument from either a White or Indigenous speaker impacts their racial attitudes toward Indigenous peoples. In our study, an (otherwise representative) sample of White Canadian respondents are asked their opinion about a controversial government policy to build a pipeline in Western Canada, a federal project that has support and opposition from different Indigenous groups. Indigenous peoples in Canada experience the highest levels of poverty and incarceration and are subject to high levels of racism and discrimination. Regardless of respondents' opinions on the pipeline project, they are randomly assigned to watch a video depicting a counterargument to their position from either an Indigenous or “White” woman (a fair, light-eyed Onondaga—or Iroquois—professional actor plays both roles). Half the respondents hear the counterargument in a rational argumentation style, which is more closely associated with Western political debate, and half hear the counterargument in a narrative perspective-taking style, which is more closely associated with Indigenous story-telling. We hypothesize that presenting counterarguments in a rational argumentation style elicits a “backlash" effect, worsening racial attitudes toward Indigenous peoples, while a narrative perspective-taking communication style helps to suppress the backlash by eliciting empathy. While a large body of literature considers how to measure White racial attitudes toward Black Americans, very little research considers how to measure White racial attitudes toward Indigenous peoples. We developed a novel scale to measure White racial attitudes toward Indigenous peoples.

Authors

• Edana Beauvais, Harvard University

• Dietlind Stolle, McGill