Assigned classroom seats can promote friendships between dissimilar
students, study finds
Students of varying gender, ethnicity, educational achievement were more likely to become friends after induced proximity

Date:
August 11, 2021
Source:
PLOS
Summary:
A study conducted in Hungarian schools showed that seating students
next to each other boosted their tendency to become friends --
both for pairs of similar students and pairs of students who
differed in their educational achievement, gender, or ethnicity.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A study conducted in Hungarian schools showed that seating students
next to each other boosted their tendency to become friends -- both
for pairs of similar students and pairs of students who differed in
their educational achievement, gender, or ethnicity. Julia Rohrer of
University of Leipzig, Germany, and colleagues present these findings
in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on August 11, 2021.


========================================================================== According to earlier research, proximity between people can promote friendships. However, people also tend to become friends with those who
have similar characteristics, such as gender, age, and ethnicity. It is
unclear how these two phenomena interact; specifically, whether similarity between individuals influences the effects of proximity on friendship.

To explore this question, Rohrer and colleagues conducted an experiment
in which they created randomized classroom seating charts for 2,966
students in grades 3 through 8 across 40 schools in rural Hungary. The
students remained in their assigned seats for one semester, at the end
of which they reported their friendships in a survey.

Statistical analysis of the students' demographics and reported
friendships showed that sitting next to each other increased the
probability of their becoming mutual friends from 15 to 22 percent (an
increase of 7 percent). The propensity toward friendship increased for
all pairs of students, including those who differed in their educational achievement, gender, or ethnicity (Roma or non-Roma ethnic identity).

However, the researchers found, the number of friendships increased more
for similar versus dissimilar pairs of students. This was because the
baseline propensity toward friendship started out higher for similar
students, so seating them next to each other pushed more of them past
a threshold into actual friendship than did seating dissimilar students together. Gender was the main driver of this pattern.

The researchers noted that the effect of sitting together for students of
Roma and non-Roma ethnicities was less certain than for pairs of students
who were dissimilar in other ways, especially given the small numbers of
Roma students in their sample. However, overall their findings suggest
that seating assignments could be effective tools in promoting diverse friendships, which could help foster social skills and improve attitudes
about those in other demographic groups.

Senior author Felix Elwert adds: "Friendships matter, for better or worse.

Having friends improves happiness and health; but friendship networks
also divide people, because humans mostly befriend others that are just
like them.

Importantly, we found that sitting next to each other increased
friendship potential for all children, regardless of their
gender, class, or ethnic background. This demonstrates that simple ('light-touch") interventions can effectively diversify friendship
networks." Co-author Tama's Keller adds: "Although teachers have a
full control over arranging the classroom seating chart, inducing
friendship by seating chart arrangement is an overlooked policy
lever. Our research has highlighted two specific boundaries: gender
and ethnic differences. Students in early adolescence make friendships
with the same sex peers -- a feature that is difficult to change with light-touch seating chart interventions. Similarly, the goal to establish inter-ethnic friendship ties might require more intensive interventions." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by PLOS. Note: Content may be edited
for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Julia M. Rohrer, Tama's Keller, Felix Elwert. Proximity can induce
diverse friendships: A large randomized classroom experiment. PLOS
ONE, 2021; 16 (8): e0255097 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0255097 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210811162826.htm

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