A post by Shannon Spaulding

Can you have trust without understanding? This is not an esoteric question. It is a question directly relevant for the many politically and affectively polarized debates in our society. Individuals on either side of these polarized debates find it difficult to empathically imagine the perspective of someone on the other side, and to see what is subjectively reasonable about the other’s perspective. Moreover, individuals on either side of these polarized debates tend to distrust those on the other side. Such polarization raises the question whether there is a rational way out of this dynamic.