EMPATHY
UNDERSTANDING
POLARIZATION
Pit Perspectives connects unheard student voices to eager ears.
EMPATHY
UNC was the first public university in the US. We’ve had 232 years to build an accepting student culture, but have we?
With over 30,000 Tar Heels, UNC is also home to 50 Greek Life organizations, over 800 clubs, and thousands of tight-knit friend groups. These groups and cliques allow students coming from across the world to feel at home and find their people, but is UNC so big that the only way to function is through small factions?
College is a time and place to expand our worldview, and as much as we pride ourselves on our classes and professors, there’s no better way to grow than by making interpersonal connections. How did we grow up? What do we believe in? What will we fight for? Who do we want to become?
These questions guide us in producing episodes that allow students to hear from peers they otherwise would never meet.
student voices will define the future.
UNDERSTANDING
After we can see the world from each other’s eyes, we can start to break down our implicit biases, judgments, and assumptions. We hope to provide students with the tools to engage with opposing ideas, starting with a shared understanding, whether it be socially, culturally, or politically.
Only when we approach conflict from a place of mutual respect can we have productive discourse, and only when we have productive discourse can we understand one another.
“He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that. His reasons may be good, and no one may have been able to refute them. But if he is equally unable to refute the reasons on the opposite side; if he does not so much as know what they are, he has no ground for preferring either opinion” (1).
[1]Mill, John Stuart. “Chapter II: Of the Liberty of Thought and Discussion.” On Liberty, 4th edition, London: Longman, Roberts, & Green Co, 1869, pp. 29-30, 61-62.
there is no learning without listening.
POLARIZATION
Ideological polarization, specifically affective polarization, has arguably been on the rise in the American electorate in recent years. The growth of echo chambers on social media, fed by algorithms and shares, and the translation of these echo chambers into animosity towards our political opposites can be seen among young people today.
Affective polarization can be seen as in-group hostility towards out-party group members. Direct contact with out-party members can lower affective polarization across a range of outcomes: lower social distance, fewer negative feelings, more positive feelings, and warmer overall feelings (1).
[1] Magdalena Wojcieszak & Benjamin R. Warner. Can Interparty Contact Reduce Affective Polarization? A Systematic Test of Different Forms of Intergroup Contact, Political Communication, Volume 37, Issue 6, Pages 789-811, 10.1080/10584609.2020.1760406
