Most people – maybe more than you think – are peace- and love-seeking creatures who are sometimes caught in bad situations. The most practical thing you can do, even in hard times, is to lead with curiosity, lead with respect, work hard to understand the people you might be taught to detest.

“That means seeing people with generous eyes, offering... See more

Not all conflict is bad. Disagreement — over taxes, education, or policy — is essential to a healthy democracy. But affective polarization isn’t about differing ideas. It’s about identity.

It emerges when people begin to dislike, distrust, or even dehumanize others because of who they are — their ethnicity, region, religion, political affiliation,... See more

Once the fog of political warfare that surrounds an election has cleared, we could discover that most of our fellow citizens are not irredeemably indifferent to Trump’s evident vices; that whatever explains their attachment to the president, it is not that they repudiate the values he does not respect. Our tribal prejudices are at their worst in

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