Viewpoint diversity in friendship

Background

We define viewpoint diversity as dissimilarity of views on moral or political issues.

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The majority of research on diverse friendships in social psychology focuses on diversity in the dimensions of race and ethnicity. This is important work, but it reflects a limited conception of diversity and ignores the pressing societal issue of increasing political polarization. My research has shown that friendship pairs who say they value diversity are more likely to be diverse in race/ethnicity, religion, and sexual orientation, but more similar in attitudes and values. This suggests that “viewpoint diversity” is not often recognized as an asset in personal relationships, which is why people with positive diversity beliefs do not necessarily have politically diverse friendships. People tend to harbor negative attitudes toward and have difficulty cooperating with others who do not share their political views. We seek to establish “viewpoint diversity” as a dimension of difference that potentially offers benefits for personal relationships whereas previous work has not addressed this type of diversity.