Article Polarized Attitudes Toward the Ground Zero Mosque are Reduced

On the basis of construal level theory (Trope & Liberman, 2010), we hypothesized that political polarization on controversial issues may be reduced by increasing abstract mental construal. Using the issue of the ‘‘Ground Zero Mosque’ ’ and political polarization on it as an example, we first established that liberals and conservatives hold opposing attitudes toward building a mosque near Ground Zero (Study 1). Polarized attitudes were significantly reduced by increasing the abstract (vs. concrete) level of construal, by having participants answer a series of why (vs. how) questions before considering the issue (Study 2) or by having mental construal may potentially provide a means for dialogue and compromise on divisive political issues, and implications for political discourse are discussed