The Bridging Differences: A Virtual Summit for Dialogue and Understanding brought a 400-strong tribe of bridge builders to discuss strategies that reduce toxic polarization and promote healthy disagreement.
If you are a bridge builder in your community, here is a list of organizations doing important research that may help you bridge divides in your own community:
Beyond Conflict – Progressing the field of Neuroscience and Social Conflict by promoting research, developing policy recommendations, and convening global conferences for key scientists, policymakers, practitioners, journalists and funders. An example of their work is the Polarization Index, launched in 2018.
CitizenData– Aiming to connect non-partisan, cross-partisan, and bipartisan groups with the same kind of access to the research, audiences, and analytics as far right and left groups.
Difficult Conversations Lab– Studying polarizing moral conflicts, and whether and how dialogue can succeed as a tool for reducing tension between opponents. The lab tracks emotional, cognitive, behavioral and physiological experiences over the course of conversations.
Moral Foundations – Testing a variety of theories about moral psychology with a main goal to foster understanding across the political spectrum.
More in Common – Developing and testing on-the-ground initiatives to counter polarization and ‘othering’ of groups in our society, and build bridges across dividing lines. They work with partners such as civil society organizations, faith groups, environmental groups, employers and unions to test and scale the most effective initiatives.
Openmind platform – Gathering data and recommending action to depolarize campuses, companies, organizations, and communities through a psychology-based educational platform.
Othering and Belonging Institute at UC Berkeley Bringing together researchers, organizers, stakeholders, communicators, and policymakers to identify and eliminate the barriers to an inclusive, just, and sustainable society.
Peace and Conflict Neuroscience Lab at the University of Pennsylvania Seeking to understand how the human mind drives intergroup conflict and to put research into action to heal those divisions.
Polarization and Social Change Lab at Stanford University – Conducting research on actionable solutions to reduce polarization and incivility in the U.S. and pursuing partnerships with organizations to directly intervene, and disseminates findings to political leaders and the general public. Their work is focused on paths to political consensus, reducing harms of polarization, and effective strategies of social activism.
Project Over Zero – Leveraging insights from both research and practice, specifically around communication, to prevent, resist, and rise above identity-based violence and other forms of group-targeted harm.
The Fund for Peace – Empowering policy-makers, practitioners, and populations with context-specific, data-driven applications to diagnose risks and vulnerabilities and to develop solutions through collective dialogue.
If you are looking for inspiration and resources to bridge divides in your community, click on the resource lists below.
These resources were pulled together by the incredible conference organizers and attendees that assembled at this conference.
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