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 30,000 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.

Civity’s intervention 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 bipartisanship, 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.