Understanding and combating misperceived polarization
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Abstract
By many accounts politics is becoming more polarized, yielding dire consequences for democracy and trust in government. Yet a growing body of research on so-called false polarization finds that perceptions of 'what the other side believes' are inaccurate-specifically, overly pessimistic-and that these inaccuracies exacerbate intergroup conflict. Through a review of existing work and a reanalysis of published data, we (i) develop a typology of the disparate phenomena that are labelled 'polarization', (ii) use that typology to distinguish actual from (mis)perceived polarization, and (iii) identify when misperceived polarization gives rise to actual polarization (e.g. extreme issue attitudes and prejudice). We further suggest that a specific psychological domain is ideal for developing corrective interventions: meta-perception , one's judgement of how they are perceived by others. We review evidence indicating that correcting meta-perception inaccuracies is effective at reducing intergroup conflict and discuss methods for precisely measuring meta-perception accuracy. We argue that the reputational nature of meta-perception provides a motivational mechanism by which individuals are sensitive to the truth, even when those truths pertain to the 'other side'. We conclude by discussing how these insights can be integrated into existing research seeking to understand polarization and its negative consequences. This article is part of the theme issue 'The political brain: neurocognitiv…
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Erroneous beliefs about other partisan tribes are not caused by information problems but respond to a context of competition.
“The erroneous beliefs that occur in our mind when thinking about other partisan tribes are not caused by information problems but respond to a context of competition (Lees & Cikara, 2021).”
From ¿Demasiado lejos? Cómo la polarización mal percibida alimenta la polarización afectiva en España (2025) · cites this paper as Lees & Cikara, 2021
Other intervention strategies focus on correcting misperceptions, encouraging more complex thinking, and reducing anger and competitive feelings.
“Other intervention strategies focus on correcting misperceptions, encouraging more complex thinking, and reducing anger and competitive feelings26,131,132.”
From Cognitive–motivational mechanisms of political polarization in social-communicative contexts (2022) · cites this paper as [26]
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- Authors
- Lees, J., & Cikara, M.
- Affiliations
- Clemson University (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Lees, Jeffrey
- Venue
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B
- Publisher
- The Royal Society
- Published
- 2021-02-22
- Volume
- 376
- Issue
- 1822
- Pages
- 20200143-20200143
- ISSN
- 0962-8436 (ISSN-L)
- 1471-2970
- PMC
- PMC7935088
- OpenAlex
- W3129698899
- Cited by
- 113
- References
- 52
- Citations by year
- 2026: 18 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 22 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 20 · 2021: 13 · 2020: 2
- FWCI
- 24.95
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- PsyArXiv (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences (BCS1551559)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social Power and Status Dynamics
- Keywords
- political polarization, metaperception, intergroup conflict, prejudice, issue attitudes, corrective actions, public trust in government
- MeSH terms
- Attitude, Group Processes, Humans, Judgment, Motivation, Politics, Prejudice, Social Perception, Trust
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