Bridging Political Divides with a Cooperative Online Quiz Game

Abstract

Rising political animosity threatens democracy in the United States and other nations. Prior behavioral research suggest that positive intergroup contact can reduce intergroup hostilities and increased interdependence improves the accuracy of social information (Erber & Fiske, 1984) which is important for the formation and stability of complex social systems. In this dissertation, I ask whether mutually beneficial cooperation can reduce animosity between members of opposing political parties and whether this is possible in an anonymous online context. Experiment 1 provides evidence that playing with an outparty partner in a cooperative quiz game can reduce self-report measures of affective polarization. Experiment 2 replicates the results of Experiment 1 in a large, pre-registered study, establishing that an hour of gameplay with an outparty partner can improve both self-reported warmth toward outparty members and increase economic allocation to outparty strangers. Follow-up surveys show that many of these changes are durable, lasting four months in some cases. Experiment 3, tests whether the inclusion of political content within the quiz game is necessary to realize the effects observed in Experiment 1-2. I find evidence that the political content does not impede and possibly magnifies the effects of intergroup contact when done in the context of a collaborative quiz game. Furthermore, these effects appear to be moderated by feelings of mutual respect between participants and their partners. Experiment 4 explores two separate one-player versions of the quiz game, both of which omit political content, in order to test whether real-time interaction with an outparty partner is necessary to realize the effects observed in Experiments 1-3. In general, I find that non-political versions of the one player game fail to reduce affective polarization. Finally, in Experiment 5, I test whether a political version of the one-player game can reduce affective polarization and anti-democratic attitudes and find strong support that it can. Because this game-based intervention is both repeatable and enjoyable, it holds promise for real-world application, with the possibility of adaptation to other political contexts.