Liberals are less empathetic towards their political opponents than conservatives, study finds
In today's society, where political polarization has progressed, some people may feel that it is difficult to understand those with opposing political opinions and that they cannot empathize with them. A new study has shown that 'liberal people show less empathy to those who are politically opposed than conservative people.'
Empathic Conservatives and Moralizing Liberals: Political Intergroup Empathy Varies by Political Ideology and Is Explained by Moral Judgment - James P. Casey, Eric J. Vanman, Fiona Kate Barlow, 2025
Liberals show less empathy to political opponents than conservatives do
https://www.psypost.org/study-finds-liberals-show-less-empathy-to-political-opponents-than-conservatives-do/
In recent years, political division has become a major issue that threatens the stability of nations. However, even if you do not share the same political views, if you can show a reasonable amount of empathy and compassion, there is a good chance that you can bridge the divide and have a more beneficial dialogue or seek a compromise.
In fact, former US President Joe Biden also said in his inaugural address , 'Put yourself in the other person's shoes, even for just a moment,' emphasizing the importance of empathy in repairing the nation's divisions. However, unfortunately, many people find it difficult to empathize with those who are their political opponents.
So a research team from the University of Queensland in Australia conducted four online experiments to explore how political ideology shapes intergroup empathy bias and how empathy differs by political ideology.
The first experiment was conducted in March 2020 and involved 549 people living in the United States. In the experiment, each subject read a short story about a person experiencing a minor hardship, such as a sprained ankle. After being informed that the person was politically conservative, neutral, or liberal, the subjects rated their emotional reactions on a scale that included 'whether you have empathic interest in the other person,' 'whether you can put yourself in the other person's shoes,' and 'whether you have empathic intentions, such as trying to help.' Subjects also answered questions about the morality and likability of the person in the story, how similar they were to themselves, and their perception of the harm caused by the political group to which the person belonged.
The remaining experiments were conducted in a similar situation, but the timing and subjects were different. The second experiment was conducted in September 2020 and involved 958 people living in the UK. The subsequent experiments were conducted after the US presidency changed from conservative President Donald Trump to liberal President Biden. The third experiment was conducted in September 2021 and involved 1,372 people living in the US, and the fourth experiment was conducted in November 2022 and involved 1,874 people living in the US.
In all four experiments, subjects consistently showed less empathy for political opponents than for people of the same political ideology or neutrals. However, this tendency was not consistent across conservatives and liberals. The research team reported that liberal subjects showed significantly less empathy for conservatives than conservative subjects showed for liberals.
The first experiment showed that the difference in empathy was driven by liberal subjects rating conservatives lower in morality and likeability, and the second experiment found a similar trend in British subjects. The third and fourth experiments showed that liberals continued to rate conservatives as more harmful and immoral even after the Democratic Party took power.
One limitation of this study is that it relied on hypothetical scenarios rather than actual events, meaning the results may not be easily generalizable to the real world.
The research team said, 'Our study suggests that conservatives are more sympathetic to their opponents than liberals and can empathize when necessary.' However, this does not necessarily mean that liberals are intolerant, but rather that 'liberals have actually been harmed by conservatives, which is the basis for their animosity.'
Related Posts:
in Science, Posted by log1h_ik