On Thursday Feb. 29, the University of Rhode Island’s Department of Political Science hosted a panel open to the public, titled “Discussing Contentious Politics,” meant to help attendees hold civil conversations with others while discussing controversial issues.
The discussion, held in the Memorial Union with a group of professors all teaching within the political science department, delved into the connections between emotions and politics, additionally shedding light on issues ranging from domestic political divides to international conflicts.
Marc Hutchison, the chair of the political science department at URI, began the conversation by discussing the influence of emotional appeals in shaping political discourse.
“Psychological research has told us that emotional appeals are the most powerful appeals,” Hutchison said. “People are very susceptible to anecdotes and emotional storytelling. This is the basis of myths, and the media knows this.”
Hutchison mentioned the challenges of teaching and discussing these topics in a classroom setting, and said that while it is often difficult to talk about, it cannot and should not be avoided altogether.
“We have to live with contentious politics every day,” Hutchison said. “We cannot avoid it. Because of that, it is our job to discuss and engage in contentious politics, we often have to wade into it and set guidelines about what is the right approach.”
While emotional appeals are certainly prevalent in domestic politics, another panelist discussed how they also reverberate on the global stage, as exemplified by the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Roya Izadi, an assistant professor at URI, discussed the complexities of the region, and mentioned the importance of understanding diverse perspectives and lived experiences. Izadi, who is a native of Iran, also mentioned the importance of empathy in navigating the dynamics of the conflict, where millions of people with different backgrounds and cultures are affected.
“It is very important that we consider and know that there are millions of people living in this region, each having their own unique experiences and backgrounds and perspectives,” Izadi said.
Izadi, in addition to Hutchison, noted the challenge of discussing these events, and advised caution to those who wish to speak about these issues with people who have a personal connection to them, especially those who may be natives of the affected regions.
“Be very mindful of those lived experiences,” Izadi said. “No matter how much you know the context. You can never truly know what the context looks like if you haven’t read about it in depth.”
Nicolai Petro, a professor with an extensive background in Russian and Ukrainian relations, furthered the discussion and mentioned the Israel-Palestine conflict and historical examples of reconciliation.
“Peace depends on reconciliation, which will take generations just as it did, between England and Ireland, the U.S. and Mexico, France and Germany, all once deemed irreconcilable enemies,” Petro said.
Christopher Parker, a professor specializing in judiciary issues, spoke on the domestic political landscape in the United States, and elaborated on how emotions and psychological processes influence public discourse and decision-making.
Parker mentioned the significance of recognizing subconscious biases, such as motivated reasoning and confirmation bias, touching on the importance of civil and rational conversations amidst political polarization.
“My hope is that if people realize they’re able to recognize how these subconscious processes are affecting how we seek out information, then one can take a second and recognize when they are engaging in this type of motivation,” Parker said.
Conversations like these will likely continue to be held this Fall, with the theme of this year’s Honors Colloquium being ‘Democracy in Peril’, a collaboration between the departments of Political Science and Marine Affairs at URI.