In the US, both Democrats and Republicans substantially overestimate the number of political outgroup members who approve of blatant wrongs

Puryear, Curtis, Emily Kubin, Chelsea Schein, Yochanan Bigman, and Kurt Gray. 2022. “Bridging Political Divides by Correcting the Basic Morality Bias.” PsyArXiv. January 11. doi:10.31234/osf.io/fk8g6

Abstract: Efforts to bridge political divides often focus on navigating complex and divisive issues. However, nine studies suggest that we should also focus on a more basic moral divide: the erroneous belief that political opponents lack a fundamental sense of right and wrong. This “basic morality bias” is tied to political dehumanization and is revealed by multiple methods, including natural language analyses from a large Twitter corpus, and a representative survey of Americans with incentives for accuracy. In the US, both Democrats and Republicans substantially overestimate the number of political outgroup members who approve of blatant wrongs (e.g., child pornography, embezzlement). Importantly, the basic morality bias can be corrected with a brief, scalable intervention. Providing information that just one political opponent condemns blatant wrongs increases willingness to work with political opponents and substantially decreases political dehumanization.