Attitudes in an interpersonal context: Psychological safety as a route to attitude change

Conversations with people who hold opposite partisan attitudes can elicit defensiveness, reinforce extreme attitudes, and undermine relationships with those with opposing views. However, this might not be the case when speakers experience high-quality (attentive, 2 understanding, and non-judgmental) listening from their conversation partners. We hypothesized that high-quality listening will increase speakers’ positive views toward, and their willingness to further interact with, others who hold politically opposed attitudes, and that these effects will be mediated by greater state openness. We conducted three experiments using different modalities to manipulate listening. In Study 1 (N = 379), participants recalled a conversation with an opposing political party member, with listening quality described as high-quality, low-quality, or control. Study 2 (N = 269) used imagined interactions, with participants reading vignettes describing either high-quality listening or a control condition. In Study 3 (preregistered; N = 741), participants watched a video of a listener modeling high-quality or moderate-quality listening and imagined themselves engaging in a similar interaction. Across studies, we found that high-quality listening consistently increased speakers’ state openness to politically opposed others, but did not change political attitudes. We found inconsistent evidence for speakers’ increased willingness to engage in future interactions (meta-analytic effect: 𝑑 = 0.20, p = .015). However, the indirect effect of listening on positive attitudes and willingness for future interactions through increased openness was consistently significant.

Polarisation poses significant challenges to societal cohesion and democracy. This article explores how education, guided by cosmopolitan principles, can address these divides by fostering empathy, promoting intercultural dialogue, and challenging exclusionary narratives. This article advances the concept of rooted cosmopolitanism by demonstrating how local cultural attachments can complement global ethical principles by balancing particularistic and universalistic values. Through examples of case studies conducted in Canada, Israel, and India, this article highlights the adaptability of cosmopolitan education in diverse sociopolitical contexts and illustrates how education can bridge divides, promote mutual respect, and foster unity in diversity. The practical strategies include integrating global and local perspectives into curricula, promoting experiential learning to engage with diversity, and equipping educators with cultural competence and anti-bias tools. While resistance to change and resource constraints persist, the findings underscore education’s transformative potential to reduce polarisation and cultivate inclusive, equitable communities. This calls for sustained efforts to embed rooted cosmopolitan principles into education, by providing a framework for bridging divides and preparing students to navigate an interconnected world.