Imaginatively Preserving Democracy?

We apply the novel concept of imagined contact, which has been developed in social psychology, to the political challenge of preserving democracy. Our model proposes that citizens who engage in imagined political contact with a member of a political outgroup (such as a supporter of the rival party or someone who holds opposite ideological views) will develop more positive democratic intentions towards such ‘rival’ citizens (rejecting violence against them and seeking direct positive engagement and discussion with them), and this positive effect will be explained by a number of emotional (decreased anger and anxiety) and cognitive (improved trust and perception of motivation) mediators. However, a series of pre-registered nation-wide experiments – in the USA, Northern Ireland and Great Britain – leads to the opposite conclusion: imagined political contact has a negative impact. These surprising findings cause us to suggest a change in research focus towards understanding the limits of, or constraints on, citizens’ political imagination.