Deeper Conversations fall series takes on 2024 U.S. election, political polarization

Karina Schumann a social psychology professor at the University of Pittsburgh, credited the rise of
affective polarization in America to the spread of negative emotions toward people in other parties. **Julianna Nunez**/ *Junior Staffwriter*

Dietrich College’s first Deeper Conversations event of the school year, “Bridging the Divide: Understanding and Addressing Political Polarization in America,” took place on Wednesday, Sept. 11, featuring a panelist discussion on political polarization in America.

What is Deeper Conversations?

Deeper Conversations has been an ongoing initiative on campus since January. Its goal is to facilitate civil discourse on complex topics that affect society. The initiative encourages the CMU community to “embrace free speech,” “build bridges of openness and understanding,” and “consider new perspectives,” as stated by President Farnam Jahanian during the event’s introduction.

Last year’s Deeper Conversations events surround issues relating to the crisis in Israel and Gaza. They included workshops on dealing with islamophobia and antisemitism, book discussions, and talks providing multiple perspectives on the history of and outlook on the ongoing conflict.

This fall’s series of events will focus on democracy and the 2024 presidential election. It is a joint effort between the Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy Dean Ramayya Krishnan and Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Science Dean Richard Scheines.

During last week’s 90-minute event, each panelist gave a brief talk on political polarization and its causes. After each panelist spoke, there was a Q&A moderated by Dean Scheines with questions submitted by the audience.

Jonathan Cervas, an assistant professor from the Carnegie Mellon Institute for Strategy and Technology, spoke first, discussing the increase of geographic polarization in America. Although “red states” and “blue states” only became common terms in the 2000s, where people live is the best indicator of how they will vote, according to professor Cervas.

The second speaker was Karina Schumann, associate professor of social psychology and director of the Conflict Resolution Laboratory at the University of Pittsburgh. Her talk gave a social-psychological explanation for the rise of a phenomenon affective polarization – when individuals feel strong positive emotions towards their political party and negative emotions towards the other.

Kevin Zollman, Herbert A. Simon Professor of Philosophy and Social and Decision Sciences and director of the Institute for Complex Social Dynamics, spoke last about the social conditions that typically cause polarization — our ability to quickly change our friends, enabled by social media, coupled with our tendency to be slow to change our beliefs.

Solutions to Polarization

All speakers on the panel agreed that the public is not becoming more polarized ideologically. Rather, what drives polarization is that our political identity is becoming more linked to our overall identity.

During the Q&A session, the panelists responded to questions regarding the role of institutions and businesses in dealing with polarization.

They also emphasized personal responsibility and urged the audience to interact with those who may hold different beliefs. This will help us challenge our misconceptions about the other party and view them as less of a threat.

Dr. Zollman emphasized the importance of having intellectual humility. “Your experiences are somewhat limited and not exhaustive,” he reminded the audience. He stressed the need to “start seeing people as human and having valuable perspectives to share,” even if those perspectives may differ from ours.

Tehya Lim, a first-year student intending to major in Behavior Economics, attended the event. She attended the discussion because of its connection to policy and sociology, two of her interests.

“I think everyone has been in a situation where you’re stuck between two opposite sides of a political spectrum,” she said regarding the topic of the panel. “This problem of a lack of communication and feuding between red and blue seems almost endless or hopeless, but I hope there can be a change over time.”

Despite this, Tehya also felt encouraged by the amount of people who attended the discussion and seemed concerned about the topic.

The next Deeper Conversations event, “Immigration at the Ballot Box: Key Issue for 2024,” will be held on Oct. 1 and will discuss the complexities of immigration and its connection to the 2024 election.

After that discussion, there will be two more events in the election series – the first dealing with foreign influence in the election and the last taking place after the election, regarding what’s next for the future of democracy.