What happens when strangers with different political views work together instead of debating one another?
Earlier this year, we shared results from a randomized controlled trial showing that Tango — a collaborative trivia game supported in part by Templeton World Charity Foundation — can reduce partisan animosity by pairing people across political divides to solve problems together.
In a recent episode of WBUR and NPR's Here & Now, Harvard psychologist and Tango co-creator Joshua Greene discusses the thinking behind the game, the research behind its design, and where the project is headed next.
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"When I looked at the research... the thing that seems to really have the greatest power is mutually beneficial cooperation — or what you might call teamwork," Greene says. "We needed something fun, something that people would want to do and something that people would want to come back and do again."
Rather than asking people to argue about politics, Tango pairs them to solve trivia questions together. The experience, Greene explains, helps participants realize that "everybody gets to be smart, everybody gets to be wrong, gets to have their assumptions challenged."
The interview also offers an update on where the project is headed. Greene discusses plans to expand Tango beyond colleges, explore new versions that connect people across generations as well as political differences, and develop AI partners that introduce new players to the game before matching them with a real person.
Importantly, Greene notes that the goal isn't to change people's political beliefs. Instead, research suggests the game can help participants feel more warmly toward people on the other side and become more willing to cooperate with them. As he puts it, "playing Tango two or three times with someone who's different from you can really just lower the temperature a few degrees."
Listen to the full conversation to hear Greene discuss the science behind cooperative play, the future of Tango, and how a simple trivia game might inspire connection both online and beyond it.
Image: Harvard students participate in Tango trivia at the 2025 freshman orientation. (Courtesy of Dustin Weyand/Harvard University)
