One need only watch the nightly news to understand why greater attention to taking others' perspectives seriously might be needed in the United States. Signs of disrespect and intolerance abound across the ideological spectrum: in Representative Joe Wilson yelling "You lie!" at President Obama last year, in Harry Reid comparing opponents of health care reform to supporters of slavery, in Tea Partiers likening President Obama to Hitler. In modern political discourse, open-minded discussions are few and far between, and leaders who carefully weigh the evidence and change their minds in response are even rarer.