PhD Profile: Soran Hajo Dahl

People are more inclined to tolerate views which conflict with their own when they feel that something sensible can be said in their favor. When they recognize the opposition’s arguments as valid contributions to the debate, they see that their views are not arbitrary, but results of sincere efforts to orient themselves in the social world. When, on the other hand, they feel that opponents lack legitimate reasons, or are motivated by illegitimate ones, disagreement becomes an indictment of their intelligence and moral character.

In light of this, my dissertation examines how people’s tolerance of disagreement is influenced by their knowledge and appraisals of the arguments of political opponents. To this end, I have developed a novel research design utilizing survey experiments with open-ended questions. I have used this approach to examine disagreements over the controversial issue of cross-cultural immigration in Norway. In the next step, I will expand the study to Germany, France, the UK, the Netherlands, and Sweden.