And who can blame them? When they read the news, they hear that America is more divided than ever. When they log onto social media, they see a culture war fought in seemingly every post and thread. But when you take political conversations beyond a news sound bite or a 280-character tweet, and focus on context and substance, the divide narrows. Strangers find common ground. And people have a better chance of developing real respect for each other, regardless of the political views and beliefs that divide them. These bridges over our social and political chasms are what we’re trying to build at the University of North Carolina Center for the Science of Moral Understanding. In ongoing research, we’re studying how to bring perspective and context into everyday conversations about politics.