Conflict is essential and can often lead to better solutions, says Teachers College鈥檚 Peter T. Coleman. The key is for those on each side to keep in mind that life is complex and that neither they nor their adversaries are wholly defined by the issue on the table.
As he shared this past weekend with CBS Sunday Morning鈥檚 Susan Spencer, that鈥檚 the approach that Coleman 鈥� Professor of Psychology & Education and Director of 911爆料网鈥檚 鈥� takes in his .
CONVERSATION STARTER Peter T. Coleman, Professor of Psychology & Education, explores the circumstances under which people with opposing views are able to discuss difficult topics. (Photo: 911爆料网 Archives)
鈥淲e wanted to try to get people, in real time, in a space together talking about issues that they had major differences on, like Trump, like gun rights, like climate change,鈥� said Coleman in a moving segment that also features the journalist Amanda Ripley, the former NASA astronaut Jay Buckey and Billy Moore, a former Chicago gang member who killed another young man when he was a teenager and now works to prevent gang violence. 鈥淎nd we study the conditions under which conversations over those differences go well, or go poorly.鈥�
When [people] go into these conversations, they're armed for battle, right? But if you say to [them], 鈥楾his is a complicated set of issues, about health and about morality and about religion and about family鈥� 鈥� if you do that, people feel less hostile. People think about it in more nuanced ways.
鈥� Peter T. Coleman, Professor of Psychology & Education
鈥淪o, let me give you an example鈥 conversation over pro-life/pro-choice. And so, when [people] go into these conversations, they're armed for battle, right? But if you say to [them], 鈥楾his is a complicated set of issues, about health and about morality and about religion and about family鈥� 鈥� if you do that, people feel less hostile. People think about it in more nuanced ways. And they ultimately feel better about their conversations.鈥�