Young people, the Canadian-born and the highly educated are more likely to hold strong negative views of people who hold differing views about politics, racism or gender identity than other identity groups, a new study indicates.
Overall, Canadians tend to feel more negatively toward people they disagree with about gender identity and racism, than those they disagree with politically, the Statistics Canada study shows.
Researchers say the results could point to important trends about social cohesion.
“There are people with different views in our society, and we have to figure out how to coexist without leading [to] violence … or other social discrimination and inequality,” said Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, a sociology professor at the University of Waterloo.
Social cohesion
The study, released May 28, seeks to better understand social cohesion in Canada. Social cohesion refers to how connected people feel toward each other.
“Social cohesive societies have been proven to be healthier, more resilient to shocks and experience higher growth,” said Samuel MacIsaac, a study co-author.
In the study, nearly 9,000 Canadians were asked to rank how they felt toward people who shared similar or different views from them on politics, gender identity and racism.
Those topics were chosen because of their “prominence in public debate,” MacIsaac said. Respondents were not asked to describe their personal views on any topic.
Respondents ranked people on a scale of zero to 10, with zero meaning very negative, or cold, feelings toward someone, and 10 meaning very positive, or warm, feelings.
On average, respondents had warm feelings toward those they agreed with about racism (7.1), gender identity (6.9) and politics (6.7).
They viewed those they disagreed with about politics neutrally, at 5.2. But on average, they reported feeling quite coldly toward people with different views about gender identity (4.3) or racism (3.6).
Sanyam Sethi, vice-president of public affairs at polling firm Ipsos Canada, says she is not surprised that people hold warmer views about those they disagree with politically. People’s political views are less fixed right now, she says.
“Politically, the landscape in Canada is shifting massively,” she said.
Traditionally, political scientists have said people tend to be more liberal when they are young and more conservative when they are old. But Sethi says the reverse is often true now: younger Canadians are leaning conservative while older Canadians are more liberal.
“People are open to changing their minds,” she said, which may explain why they hold fairly neutral views toward those they disagree with politically.
‘Us and Them’
A minority of respondents — 2.4 per cent — fell into the category of having very positive feelings about those they agreed with, and very negative feelings about those with whom they disagreed.
This category “may be of concern if this reflects ‘Us and Them’ sort of perspectives and a weakened social fabric,” said study co-author MacIsaac.
Younger people, those born in Canada and people with university degrees were more likely to feel very positively about those they agree with, and very negatively about those with whom they disagree. The same was true for women, LGBTQ people, white people and secular people.
Eric Kaufmann, a Canadian professor at the University of Buckingham in the U.K., says this study aligns with his previous research showing those on the political left tend to be less tolerant of those who hold different views. This is particularly true among younger people and those with university educations, he told Canadian Affairs in an email.
“The white and native-born population is more politicized by culture war issues than minorities and immigrants,” he wrote.
“I would argue that this is clearly driven by leftist ‘woke’ ideas, which form a kind of religion and a dominant meaning system for this group of people.”
‘Band together’
The study shows significant disparities between secular and religious people.
Nearly one-third — 32 per cent — of secular people reported very positive feelings about people they agreed with about racism, and very negative views about those with differing views Only 20 per cent of religious people said the same.
When it came to gender identity, 19 per cent of secular people had very positive feelings about those who shared their views, and very negative feelings about those with differing views. Only 12 per cent of religious people said the same.
Sarah Wilkins-Laflamme, the University of Waterloo professor who studies secular people, says more research is needed to say with certainty that religious people are more welcoming to people of different viewpoints than secular people.
But she gave some possible explanations for the survey results.
Secular people often place more importance on gender identity and race issues than religious people, she says.
“Even though [religious people] have distinct views on [these issues], it might not be a big driver of what they actually care about, the values they’re more focused on,” she said. Often, religious people are more concerned about how children are raised or caring for the elderly than they are about identity topics, she says.
Religious people are used to being a minority and interacting with people who hold different views than themselves, which may promote tolerance, she says.
“Just getting together as part of a [religious service] brings people from various parts of a community together into a space that non-religious folks don’t always experience,” she said.
Ipsos regularly reports on Canadians’ levels of trust that others will do what is best for the country. Those levels of trust have been steadily declining, says Sethi, of Ipsos.
All Canadians need to be concerned about declining levels of social cohesion, she says.
“It really defines happiness at an individual level and as [a] society,” she said. “It really defines our ability to band together, respond to crises and progress our societies.”
I am so disappointed in this article’s obvious biases and harmful victim blaming approach —which could be ironic given the topic, but really doesn’t seem to be.