An upward spiral – how small acts of kindness and connection can really change the world, in response to psychological research

Political abyssesWars, oppression… it's easy to feel hopeless and helpless once you watch these dark forces. In the face of a lot devastation, could any of us ever make an actual difference?

Given the magnitude of the world's problems, it would feel just like the small acts of human connection and solidarity over which you will have control are akin to putting Band-Aids on bullet wounds. It may be naive to assume that small actions could make a worldwide difference.

As a psychologist and researcher of human relationships and audience, I used to be inspired to listen to musicians Hozier provide a counterpoint at a performance this 12 months. “The small gestures of love and solidarity we offer each other can have a big impact…,” he told the group. “I believe that the core of people is generally good – I really believe that. I will die on this hill.”

I'm completely happy to report that the science agrees with him.

Research shows that individual acts of kindness and connection can have an actual impact on global change when those acts are collective. This applies on multiple levels: between individuals, between people and institutions, and between cultures.

This relational micro-activism is a robust force for change – and serves as an antidote to hopelessness because, unlike global problems, these small actions are throughout the individual's control.

Abstract becomes real through relationships

Theoretically, the concept small, interpersonal actions have large effects may be explained by what psychologists call cognitive dissonance: the discomfort you’re feeling when your actions and beliefs don't match.

For example, imagine two individuals who like one another. One believes that fighting climate change is crucial, the opposite believes that climate change is a political ploy. Cognitive dissonance occurs: they like one another but disagree. People long for it cognitive balanceThe more the 2 like one another, the more motivated they can be to take heed to one another.

So, in response to this model, the more you strengthen your relationships through acts of connection, the more likely you’re to empathize with these other individual perspectives. When these efforts are collective, they’ll strengthen understanding, compassion and community in society at large. Topics like war and oppression can feel overwhelming and abstract, however the abstract becomes real once you connect with someone you care about.

So does this theory delay in terms of real data?

Small acts of bonding change attitudes

Numerous studies reveal the ability of individual acts of connection to drive larger change.

For example, researchers studying the political divide within the United States found that participants who self-identified as Democrats or Republicans “disliked” people in the opposite group primarily for the next reasons. negative assumptions concerning the other person's morals. People also said they valued morals comparable to fairness, respect, loyalty and the will to avoid harming others.

I deliberately miss which faction prefers which characteristics – these all sound like positive attributes, don't they? Although participants believed they disliked one another for political reasons, all of them also valued qualities that benefited a relationship.

One interpretation of those results is that the more people regularly show one another that they’re loyal friends and community members who want to stop harm from coming to others, the more they’ll mitigate major social and political disagreements.

Even more compelling, one other study found that Hungarian and Romanian students – people from ethnic groups with a history of social tensions – reported also maintaining strong friendships with one another reported improved attitudes toward the opposite group. A difficult friendship with someone from the opposite group actually harmed attitudes toward the opposite ethnic group as an entire. Again, the care Quality of relationshipsEven on an objectively small scale, it had a powerful impact on reducing large-scale tensions.

In one other study, researchers examined prejudice toward what psychologists call an outgroup: a gaggle to which one doesn’t belong, whether as a consequence of ethnicity, political affiliation, or just preference for dogs over cats.

They asked participants to think concerning the positive qualities of an individual they knew or about their very own positive qualities. When participants wrote concerning the positive qualities of one other person reasonably than themselves, they later reported on them less prejudice against an out-group – even when the person they were writing about had no connection to that outgroup. Here, approaching the appreciation of others reasonably than moving away from prejudice was an efficient approach to change preconceived beliefs.

So small acts of connection can change personal attitudes. But can they really influence societies?

From one to 1 to society-wide

Each person is embedded in his own network with the people and the world around him, what psychologists call their very own network social ecology. Compassionate change on every level Changing an individual's social ecology – internal, interpersonal or structural – can affect all other levels in a type of positive feedback loop or upward spiral.

For example each System-level anti-discrimination programs in schools and interpersonal support between students interacts to shape the college environment for college students from historically marginalized groups. Here too, individual actions play a key role on this positive Domino effects.

Even as a student of human relationships, I even have been surprised at how much progress I and others have made in understanding one another through simply caring for each other. But what are small acts of connection but acts of strengthening relationships that strengthen communities that influence societies?

In much of my clinical work I exploit a model called social practice – or “intentional community building” – as a type of therapy for people recovering from serious mental illnesses comparable to schizophrenia. And if conscious community constructing can address a number of the most debilitating conditions of the human psyche, then I imagine that, broadly speaking, it could also help address essentially the most debilitating conditions of human societies.

Simply put, science supports the concept small-scale convergence can bring about change. I’ll die on this hill too.