UWEC CERCA 2025

Universities have traditionally been thought of as places where individuals can safely exercise their “civic muscles,” that is, engage in intense and thoughtful conversations with their peers about difficult issues. However, national survey data suggest that many college students today do not feel comfortable sharing their views with others. We are interested in understanding the specific hopes and fears that students have about engaging in conversations with students who differ from them politically. To develop our study materials, we asked 80 college students to imagine going into a conversation with someone who differs from them politically, and to list out (1) what they would hope for (“hopeful outcomes”) and (2) what they would be anxious about (“feared outcomes”) going into the conversation. We categorized students’ responses and selected clear exemplars from each category to form a concise list of hopeful outcomes and feared outcomes. In the current study, a large sample of students imagined going into a conversation with a fellow student who differs from them politically, and they rated the likelihood of experiencing each of the hopeful outcomes and feared outcomes. We are analyzing the data and will present the results at CERCA.