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Proximity can induce diverse friendships: A large randomized classroom experiment.
- Source :
- PLoS ONE; 8/11/2021, p1-15, 15p
- Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- Can outside interventions foster socio-culturally diverse friendships? We executed a large field experiment that randomized the seating charts of 182 3<superscript>rd</superscript> through 8<superscript>th</superscript> grade classrooms (N = 2,966 students) for the duration of one semester. We found that being seated next to each other increased the probability of a mutual friendship from 15% to 22% on average. Furthermore, induced proximity increased the latent propensity toward friendship equally for all students, regardless of students' dyadic similarity with respect to educational achievement, gender, and ethnicity. However, the probability of a manifest friendship increased more among similar than among dissimilar students—a pattern mainly driven by gender. Our findings demonstrate that a scalable light-touch intervention can affect face-to-face networks and foster diverse friendships in groups that already know each other, but they also highlight that transgressing boundaries, especially those defined by gender, remains an uphill battle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Subjects :
- FRIENDSHIP
GENDER
ACADEMIC achievement
CLASSROOMS
PROBABILITY theory
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 19326203
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- PLoS ONE
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 151853600
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255097