Scientists find that reflecting on your values before debating someone makes you more open-minded.
Debate a friend about vaccines, politics, or even who’ll win the Super Bowl this year, and it rarely ends well. Each of you is so entrenched in your positions—and so sure of your convictions—that the most likely outcome is an argument.
To conduct the research, Paul Hanel, a sociologist at the University of Essex, and colleagues recruited more than 300 student volunteers through advertisements in a local newspaper and over a mailing list. Then, they pitted pairs or groups of three participants against one another in a room and asked them to debate the merits of the university’s tuition fees.
divided the participants into two groups: Half were asked to rank their most important values out of a list of 19, such as freedom to determine one’s own actions and acceptance of others who are different, and write why those values were important to them; the other half was asked to reflect on whether they liked or disliked five different beverages, such as coffee or tea.
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