When People Hold Morally-Based Attitudes, Two-Sided Messages Can Encourage Them To Consider Opposing Viewpoints

By Emma Young Where do you stand on pheasant shooting? Or single-religion schools? Or abortion? However you feel, your attitudes probably have a strong moral basis. This makes them especially resistant to change. And since anyone who holds an opposing view, based on their own moral stance, is unlikely to be easily swayed by your arguments, these kinds of disputes tend to lead to blow-outs within families and workplaces, as well, of course, as online. So, anything that can encourage people to be more open to at least thinking about an alternative point of view could be helpful, reasoned Mengran Xu and Richard E. Petty at The Ohio State University, US. And in a new paper in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, they reveal a potentially promising method for doing just this. In the first pair of studies, the researchers looked at how various messages about gun control and freedom of speech for Nazis went down with a total of 375 US-based participants. The participants first reported on their attitudes to these topics, and the extent to which those attitudes had a moral basis. Then, those who felt that Nazis should not be allowed to speak in US high schools read a statement that concluded with the argument that, in fact, they should be allowed to. There were two variations, however: this conclusion was preceded either with strong arguments in its favour (a one-sided message), or with these arguments plus an acknowledgement that some people might find this “t...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Morality Source Type: blogs