Lea Pradella

Can you practise empathy and still disagree with someone?

Political psychology

Lea Pradella has studied the potentials and limitations to the use of cognitive empathy in political debates.

After completing her bachelor’s degree in political science and psychology at the University of Mannheim, Lea Pradella moved from Germany to Aarhus to study political psychology. As a master’s degree student – and now as a postdoc – she was affiliated with the project Research on Online Political Hostility. Lea Pradella’s PhD project focusses on emotional empathy across political divides. ”I was able to prove that if we try to understand why the other person feels the way they do, we can reduce hostility and increase agreement. I also found that we feel more comfortable discussing politics if the other person expresses empathy,” Lea says. Empathy can thus be a powerful tool, but it has its limitations, especially in the face of fundamental political disagreement. “My research suggests that empathy is most powerful when used exclusively – e.g., when we  simply say, ‘I understand’ – and that it loses momentum when accompanied by disagreement – e.g., when we say, ‘I understand, but I disagree’. And therein lies the paradox. We want to use empathy to navigate disagreements in a constructive manner, but as soon as fundamental disagreements are revealed, sentences such as ‘I understand’ lose their positive effect,” Lea explains.  Her research results are based on extensive questionnaire surveys and tests conducted in Aarhus and as a visiting researcher at the University of California, Berkeley. For these tests, she developed i.a. innovative instruction videos designed to make the participants exercise empathy towards their political opponents in social media.