Proximity can induce diverse friendships: A large randomized classroom experiment.

ABSTRACT: Can outside interventions foster socio-culturally diverse friendships? We executed a large field experiment that randomized the seating charts of 182 3rd through 8th 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

SUBMITTER: Rohrer JM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8357142 | biostudies-literature | 2021

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature