Belonging

July 4, 2022
In Cohen’s mixed debut, the Stanford psychology professor lays out a blueprint for cultivating a sense of community. Cohen argues that lacking a sense of belonging drives such social ills as chronic loneliness and toxic partisanship, and suggests that by “creating situations that foster belonging and bring out our individual and collective best” one can increase one’s sense of camaraderie. Cohen draws from social science research to lay out “interventions that nurture people’s belonging and self-worth” and details studies that found asking young people to work toward common goals with those from other backgrounds reduced prejudice more than instruction alone. The author explains how to address “belonging uncertainty” in education and discusses research he conducted that concluded that supplying students with statistics about how common some of their struggles are and pairing students with mentors increased students’ sense of belonging, especially for students of color. This is thoroughly researched, but the study summaries sometimes confuse and feel strung together, repeatedly making the same points. The ideas are provocative and humane, though the execution sometimes comes up short.

August 1, 2022
An intriguing investigation of our need to belong and how to make that process easier for the bashful among us. Stanford psychology and business professor Cohen offers a learned tour of experimental and social psychology, connecting science to real life in meaningful ways. On the issue of the pitched politics of our time, he observes that there's an evolutionary reason for not deviating from group beliefs, no matter how ridiculous or dangerous: "Being outcast from our tribe," he writes, "would once have presented a physical threat to survival, and our brains still seem to see it that way. To venture dissent is to risk expulsion." The tribe element is important, for being a member of a group is an essential part of identity, and being outside of a group is, writes Cohen, as bad for one's health as a pack-a-day smoking habit. Throw race into the mix, and things get more complicated. Drawing on a variety of disciplines, the author observes that White people are often visibly stressed when in the company of Black people, fearing that they may be called out for racism. "The accumulation of mortifications can put people in a constant state of alert, ready for the possibility of demeaning treatment," he adds, and while those mortifications apply to oppressed minorities more often than to the dominant majority, everyone has plenty of shame-inducing incidents. The ticket out? Cohen suggests that it's as simple as kindness, judging less and listening more, and being polite: "Not interrupting; saying 'please' and 'thank you'; apologizing when we do harm, whether intended or not, and even if others seem oversensitive about the harm caused, are signs that we see other selves as belonging in the circle of those to whom we should show respect." Cohen is to the point and unsentimental even as he points the way to a nicer way to live. A well-written, inviting treatise to be a better person.

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August 1, 2022
Stanford professor Cohen has not written an easy-read self-help volume but rather a serious scholarly tome that addresses a major societal problem: our sense of belonging, which affects behavior in ways that can cause war or create peace. The major themes presented here answer the questions: Who is our cohort? How do we address our connection to group thinking? How do we offer a group to those who feel disconnected? Examples range from high-school culture to Nazi Germany to Camden, NJ. The author supports his statements with examples from research from all the major schools of social psychology and applies them to the problems that employers, educators, and other group leaders face today. Is it possible to address and correct these issues? One major thesis is that every individual has the power to affect the sense of belonging that others feel, and that needs to be part of the ethos of current society. Academic collections that serve programs in psychology/sociology and management and large public libraries will find this appropriate.

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