The Social and Moral Judgment Lab is located at the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business. We conduct behavioral science experiments to understand how people make social and morally relevant judgments and decisions in a variety of everyday contexts.
Ideological disagreement between political parties is at record levels in America. Increasingly, people not only disagree with but also dehumanize their political opponents (i.e., believing opponents have deficient mental capacities—and bad intentions). To “humanize” the opposition, some practitioners have suggested encouraging conversation among opponents, allowing them to share their perspectives. But how should these conversations be structured to optimize humanization? The current research examines whether conversation is more effective for overcoming dehumanization when it is spoken (e.g., face-to-face) versus written (e.g., online).
