Mingling across classes in shared pursuits dissolves prejudice between groups
Evidence
We come from all the divisions, ranks and classes of society … to teach and to be taught in our turn. While we mingle together in these pursuits, we shall learn to know each other more intimately; we shall remove many of the prejudices which ignorance or partial acquaintance with each other had fostered…. In the parties and sects into which we are divided, we sometimes learn to love our brother at the expense of him whom we do not in so many respects regard as a brother…. We may return to our homes and firesides [from the lyceum] with kindlier feelings toward one another, because we have learned to know one another better. — Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone The Collapse and Revival…, 51
Categorization
- ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to ‘Grafting & Growth’ and the reader’s mutual-aid research theme — a historical case of solidarity built by shared learning, not enmity.
- SEED: Angle: how 19th-century American civic institutions like the lyceum were explicitly designed to dissolve class and sect prejudice through structured mixing — a forgotten design principle for depolarization.
- XREF: connects to: Interdependent cooperation toward common goals reduces intergroup prejudice — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 1671; Cross-group friendship and empathy reduce the threat behind intergroup bias. — Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup…, 165; Cooperative learning increases intergroup friendships while competition reduces them. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 2660 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Interdependent cooperation toward common goals reduces intergroup prejudice
#corroborates(0.88) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 1671 - Cross-group friendship and empathy reduce the threat behind intergroup bias.
#expands(0.82) — Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup Attitudes, 165 - Cross-group friendships reduce prejudice partly by lowering intergroup anxiety.
#expands(0.82) — Miles Hewstone and Joanne Hughes, Reconciliation in Northern Ireland, 11 - Cooperative learning increases intergroup friendships while competition reduces them.
#expands(0.80) — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 2660