Defusing Political Animosity in the United States with a Cooperative Online Quiz Game

Rising political animosity threatens democracy in the United States and other nations.Prior research indicates that intergroup contact under favorable conditions can reduce intergroupanimosity. Other research indicates that mutually beneficial cooperation is essential for creatingand stabilizing complex social structures. Building on these ideas, we asked whether mutuallybeneficial cooperation can reduce animosity between members of opposing political parties andwhether this is possible in an anonymous online context. We designed and deployed an onlinequiz game in which Republicans and Democrats play as partners while communicating in realtime. Across five experiments (N=4,493, 4 pre-registered), we find that an hour of interactivegameplay with an outparty partner can reduce negative partisanship, with increased self-reportedwarmth, more equitable economic allocations, and more favorable outparty meta-perceptionspersisting in some cases for four months. Gameplay also influences democracy-related attitudeswith effects persisting for one week. The game receives high enjoyability ratings, which mayincrease motivation to engage with this intervention.