Fighting With Mirages of Each Other — with Adam Mastroianni

Have you ever lost a friend to misperception? Have you lost a
friend or a family member to the idea that your views got so
different, that it was time to end the relationship — perhaps by
unfriending each other on Facebook?


As it turns out, we often think our ideological differences are
far greater than they actually are. Which means: we’re losing
relationships and getting mired in polarization based on warped
visions of each other. 


This week on Your Undivided Attention, we're talking with
Adam Mastroianni, a postdoctoral research scholar at Columbia
Business School who studies how we perceive and misperceive our
social worlds. Together with Adam, we're going to explore how
accurate — and inaccurate — our views of each other
are. As you listen to our conversation, keep in mind that
relationship you might have lost to misperception, and that you
might be able to revive as a result of what you hear.


CORRECTIONS: In the episode, Adam says in 1978, 85% of people
said they'd vote for a Black president, but the actual percentage
is 80.4%. Tristan says that Republicans estimate that more than a
third of Democrats are LGBTQ, but the actual percentage is 32%.
Finally, Tristan refers to Anil Seth's notion of cognitive
impenetrability, but that term was actually coined by the
Canadian cognitive scientist and philosopher Zenon W.
Pylyshyn.

RECOMMENDED MEDIA 

Widespread Misperceptions of Long-term Attitude
Change
https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2107260119   

Adam Mastroianni's research paper showing how stereotypes of the
past lead people to misperceive attitude change, and how these
misperceptions can lend legitimacy to policies that people may
not actually prefer


Experimental History
https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/  
Adam's blog, where he shares original data and thinks through
ideas


Americans experience a false social reality by
underestimating popular climate policy support by nearly
half
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32412-y
Academic study showing that Americans are living in what
researchers called a “false social reality” with respect to
misperceptions about climate views

RECOMMENDED YUA EPISODES 


Mind the (Perception) Gap with Dan Vallone


https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/33-mind-the-perception-gap


The Courage to Connect. Guests: Ciaran O’Connor and John Wood,
Jr.


https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/30-the-courage-to-connect


Transcending the Internet Hate Game with Dylan Marron


https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/52-transcending-the-internet-hate-game