This kind of research just looks like political maneuvering to attack dissenters. Part of me thinks that researchers should instead work on figuring out how to

This kind of research just looks like political maneuvering to attack dissenters. Part of me thinks that researchers should instead work on figuring out how to better convince and educate people. But maybe a lot of really smart people have already investigated that problem and figured out that writing research papers which undermine their opponents is the most effective tactic. The core problem is that most of the division is rarely about any object-level beliefs, it's almost entirely about tribal politics and power. What a boring game.