USD Professor's Research Shows How to Foster Social Cohesion, Combat Polarization

A new study co-authored by May Farid, PhD, assistant professor at the University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc School of Peace Studies, examines a new approach to education aimed at increasing social cohesion at a time of widespread conflict and polarization.

“As social scientists, we can tend to take fractured societies as a given, or see trust, cooperation, and civic commitment as fixed social conditions,” Farid said. “But our findings suggest that these things can be intentionally cultivated through structured – and scalable – learning experiences.” 

The study, conducted alongside researchers from Stanford University and University of Konstanz, involved a large-scale randomized controlled trial of more than 8,000 young students in India. Participants studied an intensive educational curriculum showing how unity and diversity reinforce each other.

“The goal is not to weaken people’s identification with particular communities, but to help them see those identities as part of a broader shared humanity,” said Prashant Loyalka, an associate professor at Stanford Graduate School of Education and one of the study’s authors. “Societies progress when relationships among people from different backgrounds grow stronger. This study shows that education can play an important role in strengthening those ties and, in turn, our capacity as a society to develop and prosper.”

The program helped participants learn to apply the knowledge, qualities, and skills it takes to actually build united and diverse environments. Findings show that implementing the program with students from a wide variety of socio-economic backgrounds has a demonstrable impact on unity and social cohesion among those students. The researchers used surveys and real-world activities designed to assess changes in both participants’ beliefs and behavior, and found that those assigned to the program were less likely than their peers who did not participate to show prejudice toward people from other groups, more willing to help people outside their own groups, and more committed to improving their community.

"Belonging and identity are important to people, and are fundamental to questions we face around political, religious, national and racial divides," Farid shared. "These findings show that expanding young people's sense of belonging beyond traditional social categories--without losing these identities--can change attitudes and behaviors in a way that strengthens social cohesion. "

Those findings were published in Nature Human Behavior earlier this summer. Read more about Farid's research in the links below.