Building capacity for unity in diversity

Social cohesion-the strength and quality of social interactions among individuals, communities and institutions-is critical to the well-being and prosperity of entire societies but is increasingly weakened by fragmentation and polarization. Existing attempts to strengthen social cohesion largely target specific social divides, such as those based on ethnicity, religion or nationality. We take a different approach, developing an intensive educational programme grounded in identification with all humanity-enabling participants to widen their circle of inclusion beyond any single social categorization and fostering their capacity to contribute to unity in diversity. Evaluating the programme through a large-scale randomized controlled trial with 8,648 youth in India, we show that programme participation reduces discriminatory attitudes and behaviours independent of any given social divide, enhances prosocial behaviours across group boundaries and bolsters civic attitudes and engagement. These findings suggest that interventions targeting universal human identity offer a promising path to social cohesion.