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DATE: Wednesday, May 25

TIME: 11 a.m.

WHO: Experts from Beyond Conflict, a nonprofit organization that uses conflict experience and brain and behavioral science to work for peace; the American Immigration Council; and UMass Amhersts Linda Tropp, professor of social psychology.

WHAT: Media telebriefing on Beyond Conflicts new report, Renewing American Democracy: Navigating a Changing Nation, which identifies psychological drivers that are being exploited to deepen social division and hasten democratic decline in the U.S.

WHERE: Virtual event. RSVP at the Zoom link here.

CONTACT: Patty Shillington, pshillington@umass.edu, 305-606-9909 Embargoed copy of the report is available.

The nonprofit organization Beyond Conflict will discuss the findings of Renewing American Democracy: Navigating A Changing Nation. The new report analyzes Americas social divides through the lens of social science to understand how demographic, social and cultural changes in the U.S. can affect perceptions of threats to our identities, feelings of belonging and perceptions of status and power. The report illuminates how these psychological dynamics can lead to greater support for populist authoritarianism, ultimately threatening the health of our democracy.

The report authors will discuss the human instinct to align with groups of people who look and think alike and to defend those groups against perceived threats, and how that instinct has been exploited and leveraged by political actors, decision makers, media conglomerates and other influencers.

Oriented toward practical interventions, the report focuses on how four identity-related dynamics in modern American life factionalism and partisan sorting, residential segregation and declining social trust, information echo chambers, and divergent racial attitudes and beliefs about racial equity are exacerbating the divides.

In addition to Tropp, the other panelists are Tim Phillips, founder and CEO of Beyond Conflict; Michelle Barsa, Beyond Conflicts director of democracy and social identity; and Wendy Feliz, founding director of the Center for Inclusion and Belonging at the American Immigration Council.

Read more:
Experts Analyze Link between Human Psychology and Threats to American Democracy - UMass News and Media Relations