Polarization has become a significant concern in American politics, limiting citizens’ ability to compromise and debate with civility on pressing issues. As the 2024 presidential election approaches, many scholars seek ways to study or even remedy this concerning trend.
La Follette School Director Susan Webb Yackee aims to address this issue through an innovative research project examining how small conversations across partisan divides can reduce polarization. She is one of three winners this year of the La Follette School’s annual Herb Kohl Public Research Competition, which awards funding to faculty research projects that advance evidence-based policymaking.
“The American public is split between red and blue in ways that are crippling our ability to tackle critical public policy problems,” Yackee says. “The Kohl Competition support for my project is designed to address political polarization in society by getting people to talk in civil and productive ways.” The discussions in Yackee’s project will mirror those held among civil society groups, which have demonstrated how short, guided conversations can defuse hostility or anger and even promote respect and empathy. While this impact is widely acknowledged, Yackee will be the first to test it through randomized-control trials. She will host community conversation events in four different Wisconsin communities that include pre and post-tests of polarization and voter turnout.
These events are also a part of the school’s Main Street Agenda Community Conversations, an outreach campaign in partnership with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel raising awareness about issues important to Wisconsinites leading up to the election. Yackee’s project aims to provide empirical evidence of the efficacy of citizen conversations. Additionally, sharing these findings throughout the state will promote civil discourse and inform future efforts to defuse partisan tension.
La Follette School Professors Greg Nemet and Jason Fletcher were also awarded funding through the Kohl Competition.
Nemet will use this award to fund research for the second edition of his book, “How solar energy became cheap: A model for low carbon innovation.” Since his influential book was published in 2018, there have been significant advances in low-carbon technology and the use of renewable energy.
“There is much data to update and new themes to cover,” Nemet says. “One in particular is to examine the implications of solar energy moving from an add-on at the periphery of a fossil fuel-focused system to the central position in the global energy system.”
Nemet’s findings will have major implications for U.S. and international energy policy, as he will focus his outreach on policymakers and influential spokespeople.
Fletcher will document how early life conditions and policies shape U.S. longevity. This research will inform his new book, which uses extensive data from the early 20th century to link exposures to specific laws, programs, or policies to long-term health outcomes.
“My book project does not suggest a new miracle drug or a new lifestyle change but instead proposes that we need to look to the past to understand the present and speculate about the future,” Fletcher says. He previewed his research earlier this year during La Follette’s Advances in Social Genomics Conference, which brings together researchers from across the world to discuss advances in the social genomics field.
The Herb Kohl Public Research Competition is funded by the Kohl Initiative, a $10 million gift from former U.S. Senator Herb Kohl. Created in 2016, the Kohl Competition has funded numerous groundbreaking research projects that advance equitable, evidence-based policy making.
– Written by Hannah Angsten