Strengthening Democracy by Increasing Social Trust & Cultivating Connections Across Difference, with Robb Willer

In this episode, we explore a massive new study on improving the health of democracy. The Strengthening Democracy Challenge invited more than 30-thousand people to engage with 25 interventions. The goal was to find ways to reduce things like partisan animosity, partisan violence, and anti-democratic attitudes, and increase social trust and a willingness to engage with people across socially salient differences.

An intervention from the nonprofit, Civity, was one of 25 chosen from a pool of 250-plus… and it was number 1 at increasing social trust, number 2 in decreasing social distance and opposition to bipartisanshi, and number 4 in reducing partisan animosity.

Civity’s relational, story-based intervention also reduced support for un-democratic practices and helped people accept others from across the political divide.

We talk with researcher Robb Willer, professor of sociology, psychology, and organizational behavior at Stanford University; as well as Director of the Polarization and Social Change Lab… and Co-Director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society.