Tuesday, October 28 at 6 p.m., reception to follow

Mere days before the midterm elections, join us for a timely conversation about one of the defining anxieties of our political moment: are Americans really as divided as they seem? This Compassionate Conversation brings together two of the world’s leading researchers on political psychology and polarization to explore what the science actually shows about media, identity, and the surprising ways people find common ground across perceived divides.

Moderated by Aliza Luft, Interim Director of the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute, the conversation will feature:

Stuart Soroka is Professor in the Departments of Communication and Political Science at UCLA. His research examines political communication, political psychology, and the relationship between public policy, public opinion, and mass media, with particular attention to negativity in news coverage and how media shapes democratic life. He is currently an Andrew Carnegie Fellow, leading research on how changes to media technologies can reducing political polarization and serves as Series Editor for the Cambridge Elements series on Politics and Communication.

Jay Van Bavel is Professor of Psychology and Neural Science at New York University and Director of NYU’s Center for Conflict & Cooperation. His research explores how shared identities and beliefs unite people or drive them apart, spanning intergroup conflict, polarization, cooperation, and misinformation. He is co-author of the award-winning book The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony (winner of the 2022 APA William James Book Award) and a Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher, ranked in the top 1% of scholars worldwide. Most recently, Professor Van Bavel was interviewed by Oprah about his work on how to restore civility “in a mean world.“ 

Together, they’ll dig into what decades of research tell us about polarization — including the idea of “false polarization,” where our perceptions of division often outpace reality — and what it actually takes to have good conversations across difference, especially when the stakes feel highest.

This event is free and open to the public.

Register here.