Research Stream „Social INTERACTIONS“
Illustration Menschen Einstein Research Unit Coping with Affective Polarization

Principle Investigators:
Dr. Denis Gerstorf, Prof. Dr. Ursula Hess, Prof. Dr. Jan Slaby, Prof. Dr. Christian von Scheve

Associate researchers:
Diego Dametto, Dr. Stefanie Hechler

Social encounters play a crucial role in affective polarization. Even though positive interactions between individuals with opposing political views are often regarded as a means to reduce hostility, such interactions may reinforce polarization. In particular, we are interested in nonverbal behavior and emotional expression in political encounters, such as emotional contagion and mimicry to observe how emotions are transferred between individuals.
In political contexts, these emotional experiences can promote social cohesion and mutual understanding, but they can also drive the emergence of collective emotions and political mobilization.

Research Questions and Objectives

The Research Stream “Social Interactions” seeks to advance our understanding of the psycho-social mechanisms that shape social interactions within and between politicized groups, and how they influence affective polarization. Our research activities are guided by various research questions such as:

  • Dyadic Cohesion: How do nonverbal behaviors in face-to-face discussions about emotionally charged political issues shape affective polarization, dyadic cohesion and political attitudes?

  • Emotional Mimicry: What role does emotional mimicry – the imitation of nonverbal behaviors of others – play in political debates and how does it affect cooperation?

  • Everyday encounters: How do political interactions take place in everyday encounters, and which effects do they have on political thinking?
  • Emotional experiences: How does the experience of political controversies contribute to affective polarization? How do specific emotions enhance our understanding of the affective dimension of polarization?

Our interdisciplinary research team tackles such guiding questions across four distinct work packages:

Work Package 1: Investigating the Impact of Guided Face-to-Face Conversations on Affective Polarization and Political Attitudes: A Laboratory Experiment

Emotionalized political debates between opposing groups are often seen as a key driver of affective polarization, potentially hindering constructive dialogue. This work package investigates how face-to-face interactions shape political conflict and mutual liking, focusing on nonverbal behavior in randomized laboratory experiments.

In face-to-face interactions, communication involves nonverbal cues like facial expressions that play a key role in shaping social relations. In Work Package 2, we examine the role of automatic emotion expression during interactions between political opponents and like-minded individuals. To detect these subtle reactions, we use electromyography (EMG) to measure facial muscle contractions. Because mimicry tends to signal closeness to interaction partners, we also investigate its influence on the willingness to collaborate across political divides.

While laboratory studies have yielded important insights, we know relatively little about how everyday political interactions shape emotional dynamics involved in affective polarization in real-world settings. Using an experience sampling approach, we examine whether behaviors observed in the lab are related to the nature and outcomes of real-life political encounters, and whether everyday interactions, in turn, help explain patterns found in laboratory research.

This work package compares findings from the lab and experience sampling with data from the Berlin Polarization Monitor, a balanced and diverse sample of the German population. Particularly, it examines how social interactions and discrete emotions (e.g., anger, pride, hate) shape affective polarization and relate to specific relationship types and forms of political engagement.

By leveraging the longitudinal design of the BPM, we also track how social interactions and intergroup and intragroup emotions evolve over time in response to shifting social and political contexts.

Research Streams