Societies are increasingly divided about political issues such as migration or counteracting climate change. This attitudinal polarization is the basis for intergroup conflict and prevents societal progress in addressing pressing challenges. Research on attitude change should provide an answer regarding how people might be persuaded to move away from the extremes to take a moderate stance. However, persuasive communication often most strongly affects those who hold a moderate attitude or are undecided. More importantly, barely any research has explicitly aimed at mitigating extreme attitudes and behavioral tendencies. Addressing this gap, this article summarizes research demonstrating that (different types of) intraindividual conflicts might be a means to mitigate polarized attitudes. Goal conflicts, cognitive conflicts, counterfactual thinking, and paradoxical thinking facilitate cognitive flexibility. This, in turn, seems to initiate the consideration of alternative stances and mitigate the polarization of attitudes. We discuss the limitations of the existing research and the potential of this approach for interventions.

中文翻译：

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个人内部冲突减少了态度的两极分化

社会在移民或应对气候变化等政治问题上的分歧越来越大。这种态度两极分化是群体间冲突的基础，并阻碍社会在应对紧迫挑战方面取得进步。关于态度改变的研究应该提供一个答案，即如何说服人们摆脱极端，采取温和的立场。然而，说服性沟通往往对持温和态度或犹豫不决的人影响最大。更重要的是，几乎没有任何研究明确旨在减轻极端态度和行为倾向。为了解决这一差距，本文总结了研究，表明（不同类型的）个人内部冲突可能是缓解两极分化态度的一种手段。目标冲突、认知冲突、反事实思维和矛盾思维有助于认知灵活性。反过来，这似乎引发了对替代立场的考虑并减轻了态度的两极分化。我们讨论了现有研究的局限性以及这种干预方法的潜力。