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As kids we were told to avoid talking about politics in polite company. However, the conventional wisdom no longer applies: we need to find a way to talk to each other about American politics, even with those (and especially those) with whom we disagree. While we've hashed and re-hashed bitter political disagreements, we have paid less attention to concrete, actionable ways to better understand each other. While it's true that, on average, public opinion doesn't change quickly, it does change: a prime example is how people think and feel about LGBTQ rights, which saw a meteoric change over the last few decades. Drawing on diverse areas of social research, this book identifies and explains where conversations fail and how we can start to dig out of our opinion silos to make reasonable changes in everyday, interpersonal political conversations.

ObjectiveThe objective of the study was to investigate the impact of perceptions of elite polarization on presidential communication. Polarization among political elites has been a well‐studied aspect of political science scholarship. Party competition is seen as healthy for democracy; however, polarization often leads to gridlock and legislative inaction. There is ongoing debate about how elite polarization affects individual attitude formation, particularly in relation to important political institutions like the American presidency.MethodsI conducted randomized laboratory experiments in which respondents read information about the state of partisanship in American politics, viewed videos of President Obama, and then answered questions about issues and presidential approval.ResultsThe results show that when participants were primed to think about elite polarization as high, presidential communication yields job‐approval ratings, issue‐importance ratings, and issue stances closer to the party line, compared to participants primed to think elite polarization is low or when there was no prime at all.ConclusionThe findings suggest that when primed to think about strong partisan disagreements, partisan identity overwhelms respondents, and makes them focus most on their partisan identity, regardless of content; without such a prime, respondents are more likely to consider the content of presidential communication. Perceptions of partisan acrimony can affect how partisans perceive important institutions like the presidency in terms of job approval and issue stance.

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a seismic shift in attitudes toward gay and lesbian people, with a majority of Americans now supporting same-sex marriage and relations between same-sex, consenting adults. However, support for transgender individuals lags far behind; a significant majority of Americans do not support the right of transgender people to be free from discrimination in housing, employment, public spaces, health care, legal documents, and other areas. In this book, Melissa R. Michelson and Brian F. Harrison examine what tactics are effective in changing public opinion regarding transgender people.

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- How to Use This Book -- Introduction -- 1. The Origins of LGBTQ Identity -- Q1. How are sexual behavior, sexual orientation, and gender identity related to each other? -- Q2. Is it true that there are LGBTQ animals in the wild? -- Q3. Is being LGBTQ a choice? -- Q4. Does LGBTQ identity exist outside of Western societies such as those in North America and developed European countries? -- Q5. Have there always been LGBTQ people? -- Q6. Has the idea that LGBTQ orientations stem from childhood sexual trauma been debunked by researchers? -- Q7. Is the word "queer" a slur against the LGBTQ community? -- 2. LGBTQ Political and Legal Treatment Over Time -- Q8. Did the gay rights movement begin at Stonewall in 1969? -- Q9. Is it true that some vocal opponents of LGBTQ rights are closeted gay people? -- Q10. Do laws protecting LGBTQ people affect the freedom of religious Americans who oppose LGBTQ people on religious grounds? -- Q11. Does giving rights to LGBTQ people lead to the legalization of practices like pedophilia, bestiality, and necrophilia? -- Q12. Have hate crimes against LGBTQ people in the United States increased over time? -- Q13. Do LGBTQ people in the United States still suffer from legal discrimination? -- 3. Public Visibility of LGBTQ People -- Q14. Has the public become more supportive of same-sex relationships and marriages? -- Q15. Has the public become more supportive of same-sex people being parents? -- Q16. Are major religions in the United States more supportive of LGBTQ people than they used to be? -- Q17. Are more people coming out as LGBTQ? -- Q18. Are there more openly LGBTQ elected officials than there used to be? -- Q19. Are there more LGBTQ people on TV and in movies than there used to be? -- 4. Gender Identity, Performance, and Dynamics.

Since the mid-1990s, there has been a seismic shift in attitudes toward gay and lesbian people, with a majority of Americans now supporting same-sex marriage and relations between same-sex, consenting adults. However, support for transgender individuals lags far behind; a significant majority of Americans do not support the right of transgender people to be free from discrimination in housing, employment, public spaces, health care, legal documents, and other areas. In this book, Melissa R. Michelson and Brian F. Harrison examine what tactics are effective in changing public opinion regarding transgender people. Michelson and Harrison, through their experiments, show that the most effective messaging on transgender issues meets people where they are, acknowledges their discomfort without judgment or criticism, and helps them to think about transgender people and rights in a way that aligns with their view of themselves as moral human beings.

" American public opinion tends to be sticky. Although the news cycle might temporarily affect the public zeitgeist about abortion, the death penalty, or gun control, public support or opposition on these issues has remained remarkably constant over decades. But there are notable exceptions, particularly with regard to polarizing issues that highlight identity politics. Over the past three decades, public support for same-sex marriage has risen from scarcely more than a tenth to a majority of the population. Why have people's minds changed so dramatically on this issue, and why so quickly? Listen, We Need to Talk tests a theory that when prominent people representing particular interest groups voice support for a culturally contentious issue, they sway the opinions of others who identify with the same group, even if the interest group and the issue at hand have no obvious connection. In fact this book shows that the more the message counters prevailing beliefs or attitudes of a particular identity group, the more persuasive it is. While previous studies of political attitude change have looked at the effects of message priming (who delivers a message) on issues directly related to particular identity groups, this study is unique in that it looks at how identity priming affects attitudes and behaviors toward an issue that is not central or directly related to the targeted group. The authors prove their theory through a series of random experiments testing the positive effects of identity-based messaging regarding same-sex marriage among fans of professional sports, religious groups, and ethnoracial (Black and Latino) groups. "--

"Contact Theory and the Distinct Case of LGBT People and Rights" published on by Oxford University Press.