Throughout the world, it often feels that societal harmony is irreparably marred by polarized attitudes. Indeed, many argue that at no other point in history have people existed in such hostile discord with their ideological counterparts. Whether among residents in a single country or between global powers, polarization has severely impacted our ability to build coalition, tackle threats to humanity, or simply exist peacefully. Our differences - ideological, ethnic, physiological, political - have been weaponized such that most public discourse becomes radioactive

Polarization is a threat to the very machinations of a functioning society: to governance, to development, and to life itself. At its worst, polarized societies devolve into genocide - as evidenced in the past by the Holocaust in Germany, and the Tutsi Massacre in Rwanda. Today, polarization often impedes policymaking, and is used as a mechanism to sow discord between (or worse, ostracize) communities. 

Polarization is worsening throughout the world; we see it in protests, increased geopolitical tensions, and in national politics. We need to tackle polarization directly if we are to get back to a point where we can communicate healthily, coexist peacefully, and put forth impactful public policy. 

The Cambridge Overcoming Polarization Initiative (COPI) does just that. Funded by a grant by the Templeton World Charity Foundation, COPI aims to tackle polarization at its root. Through workshops, panel discussions, policy clinics, and novel research, will develop an interdisciplinary framework for understanding how polarization functions, and solutions  (both theoretical and evidenced-based) to remediating polarization in society. 

COPI is led by Dr. Sander van der Linden, whose recent book Foolproof provides a guide on identifying and preventing the uptake of misinformation, and Dr. Rory Finnin, a long-time scholar of Ukrainian Studies. Supporting them is an advisory group of 8 academics across several disciplines, including Psychology, Political Science, Natural Language, Brain Science, and Philosophy.