Discussing Different Topics with Others: Does Feedback-Related Negativity Provide Insight Into How We Process Political Discussion?

Exposure to different political opinions, particularly through contested, political discussion, has been theorized as a major component of shaping a more tolerant society (Chambers, 2003). Yet, survey data suggests that these conversations are typically avoided by most Americans because they find them unpleasant (Conover, Searing, and Crewe, 2002). Research using electroencephalogram (EEG) has revealed some insight into conflict-related, time-locked, electrical brain recordings or Event-Related Potentials (ERP). Of particular interest, the Feedback-Related Negativity (FRN) ERP, has been associated with prediction error (Chen, Wu, Tong, Guan, & Zhou, 2012). Trials in which participant expectations were violated resulted in larger FRN amplitudes. The anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), has been linked both to the FRN, and with cognitive dissonance, the discomfort experienced when one holds two contradictory beliefs (Izuma, et al., 2010). The present study used EEG to utilize the FRN to investigate willingness to discuss politics, by orthogonally presenting participants from the two major political parties with potential discussion partners of congruent and incongruent political parties (party congruency) and stances on political issues (opinion congruency). It was hypothesized that trials in which either a presented discussion partner's opinion or political affiliation were incongruent with the participant would elicit the FRN. Trials in which there was congruency in either party or opinion but not both (i.e., incongruence in one but not the other) were expected to generate larger FRNs than trials in which there was congruency in both variables (Chen et al., 2012). Likewise, given that participants would expect a discussion partner of a different political party to disagree and those of the same party to agree on a given issue, trials with both incongruent party and opinion would induce a smaller FRN than the trials with only one incongruent element (i.e., either party or opinion). Finally, in replication of Hasan (2018) and Amodio, Jost, Master, and Yee (2007) it was expected that overall, democrats would exhibit larger FRN responses to incongruences than republicans such that two-way interactions would be found between party, and one or both opinion congruency and party congruency, or possibly even a three-way interaction between the two congruency variables and party.