title: Misperceptions in intergroup conflict. Disagreeing about what we disagree about.
abstract: Two studies examined misperceptions of disagreement in partisan social conflicts, namely, in the debates over abortion (Study 1) and politics (Study 2). We observed that partisans tend to exaggerate differences of opinion with their adversaries. Further, we found that perceptions of disagreement were more pronounced for values that were central to the perceiver's own ideology than for values that were central to the ideology of the perceiver's adversaries. To the extent that partisans assumed disagreement concerning personally important values, they were also inaccurate in perceiving their adversaries' actual opinions. Discussion focuses on the cognitive mechanisms underlying misperceptions of disagreement and strategies for reducing intergroup conflict.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611, USA. jrchamb@ufl.edu
authors.forename: John R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Chambers
authors.forename: Robert S
authors.initials: RS
authors.lastname: Baron
authors.forename: Mary L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Inman
mesh_terms: D000029:Abortion, Legal / Q000523:psychology; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D003220:Conflict, Psychological; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011057:Politics; D012718:Set, Psychology; D012933:Social Identification; D012938:Social Perception