The establishment of cross-partisan empathy and openness to diversity and challenge through Braver Angels non-combative debates

• Kally Bennett, Political Science, University of Delaware
• Anna Squiers, Political Science, University of Delaware

• Lindsay Hoffman, Political Communication, University of Delaware

This research aims to determine the success of Braver Angels debates in fostering cross-partisan empathy and openness to diversity and challenge for the participants. The Braver Angels team moderates non-combative debates on ten college campuses across the United States to give students the opportunity to engage with their peers on controversial topics. The problems that the Braver Angels nonprofit wishes to address in these debates are the lack of civic engagement and lack of civil discussion across ideological lines. The theoretical framework of this research relies heavily on the ideas of intellectual humility and openness to diversity and challenge. Intellectual humility is associated with an awareness of one’s capacity to be intellectually fallible. An openness to diversity and challenge, or a receptiveness to learning from those with opposing views, is contingent upon one’s intellectual humility. This study aims to measure the impact of attending a Braver Angels debate on intellectual humility and openness to diversity and challenge through the implementation of pre- and post-test surveys. Specifically, the surveys are designed to gauge any changes in participants’ openness to considering opposing viewpoints, feelings towards members of various political and ideological identifications, and the strength of respondents’ feelings toward outgroup members from engaging across differences in a Braver Angels debate. Differences, or continued similarities, will be measured by analyzing similar questions across the pre- and post-test surveys in which data may change upon participation in the debate. Not only will this work contribute to a greater understanding of polarization in the field of political communication, but through this work, organizers intend to create communities of practice on these campuses in order to promote civil discourse practices to college students.