Conflict Tipping Podcast 22: Empathy across political divides with Luiza Almeida Santos

In this episode, learn about Stanford PhD candidate Luiza Almeida Santos’ research into fostering empathy across political divides.  Listen if you are interested in learning more about:

• What empathy is (and is not)
• How empathy helps us – and ‘them’
• Building common ground
• Carrying out conversations across divides

About Luiza:

Luiza is a psychology Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University, studying how political conflicts develop, and how to minimize their most corrosive aspects. Originally from Brazil, Luiza examines how political beliefs become moral convictions, how to reduce empathic failures across group divides, how to foster more productive cross-partisan conversations, and how to improve support for democratic principles.

Luiza’s website is luiza-santos.com, and her Twitter handle is @luiza_a_santos.  You may be interested in reading her already-published paper:

Santos, L., Voelkel, J. Willer, R., & Zaki, J. (2022) Belief in the Utility of Cross-Partisan Empathy Reduces Partisan Animosity and Facilitates Persuasion. Psychological Science (view)

Her supervisor Dr Jamil Zaki’s book, referenced in the episode, is “The War for Kindness“.

About the host:
Laura May is a facilitator, people and culture director, and former Executive Director of the International Mediation Institute.  Her doctoral research asked “in what ways does blame make villains in politics” and covered the gamut from literature studies and linguistics to psychology and neuroscience, victimology to political science.  Her expertise includes emotions, polarization, blame, and international politics.  Feel free to connect with her on  LinkedIn or ResearchGate—or even both!

Laura May, PhD

Laura is a freelancer, former Executive Director of the International Mediation Institute and a negotiation and mediation lecturer.  Her doctoral research asked “in what ways does blame make villains in politics” and covered the gamut from literature studies and linguistics to psychology and neuroscience, victimology to political science.  Her expertise includes emotions,… MORE