Cross Talk: Language That Bridges America's Partisan Divide
Buehler, Suzannah
Buehler, Suzannah
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Abstract
In recent years, affective polarization has reached an all-time high in American politics. As partisan affiliation becomes increasingly central to citizens� identities, growing distrust and dislike towards the political out-group undermines bipartisan cooperation and disincentivizes cross-partisan connection. To mitigate this threat to national unity and democratic norms, organizations across the country have turned to cross-partisan civic dialogues as a potential remedy. Proponents hope that these conversations may moderate affective polarization by correcting misperceptions about out-party members and reducing the salience of partisan identities. This study utilized a purposive sample of conversational transcripts from the One Small Step program run by StoryCorps to analyze the types of communication conducive to successful and satisfying civic dialogues. Drawing on theories of communicated perspective-taking and conversational receptiveness and a reflexive thematic analysis approach, this project developed a taxonomy of the behaviors participants used to build common ground during their conversations. The taxonomy contains four behavioral �families� grouped by function: seeking information, setting a positive affective tone, identifying similarities, and navigating differences. This study also utilized post-conversation surveys to compare the presence and function of these behaviors across conversations participants self-reported as �satisfied� and �unsatisfied.� Results showed that �unsatisfied� conversations demonstrate a far greater focus on personal topics, while �satisfied� conversations balance personal and political discussion. Taken together, the findings offer an exploratory account of the interactional mechanisms through which civic dialogues may help participants build common ground.
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Date
1/1/2026
Student Status
Senior (Graduating in 2026)
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Oral Presentation
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Political Science
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College of Arts and Sciences
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Social Science (Religion)