Is it “human nature” to dislike others who think differently than us? A project led by Arber Tasimi, director of Morality and Development Lab at Emory University, has the potential to challenge this increasingly popular notion.

The goal of the project is to discover novel psychological foundations that may illuminate how affective polarization (specifically, a disliking of others with different opinions and views) comes into being during early development. It will draw on experimental methods to assess infants’ and young children's preferences, expectations, and actions toward others who hold different opinions.

• Study 1 aims to assess the influence of dissimilarity on infants’ social preferences. 
• Study 2 aims to further challenge the idea that infants think negatively of other people with different opinions.
• Study 3 aims to test whether a link between dissimilarity and negativity exists in infants’ social expectations.
• Study 4 aims to test if infants are curious about others with different opinions.
• Study 5 aims to explore whether dissimilarity might induce curiosity in young children across different domains (i.e., shared or differing opinions on food, toys, and music).