Overcoming Societal Tensions in Europe: Can Age-Diverse Friendships be the Solution?

Project no.: 9D235

Project funding: VolkswagenStiftung (VW Stiftung)

Project description:

Given the tensions between different age groups that lead to high costs related to poor health, social isolation, and early deaths, and the wider societal challenges in Europe (Ukrainian war, migration, fuel shortages, consequences of the Covid-pandemic, pension and social security), we aim to draw a bright picture of Europe’s future by pointing to age-diverse friendships as a promising solution to the societal tensions related to age and beyond. Age-diverse friendships are socioemotional meaningful relationships between people of different ages (≥15 years age difference). When members of different social groups develop a friendship, they learn about the other group, generate affective ties, and change their behavior toward them. We focus on the work context because people spend a substantial amount of their time working and the workplace is a hub for people of different ages to meet and interact with each other. On average, people have two to three friends at work. What’s important here is that the positive contact with one befriended age-diverse person can spill-over (1) to different contexts and other outgroup members (primary transfer), (2) to other outgroups (e.g., migrants or disabled people, secondary transfer), and (3) can enable cognitive liberalization. Age-diverse friendships that develop at work can thus benefit people outside work and not only befriended individuals but all members of the other age group, other social groups, and beyond. Age-diverse friendships, when encouraged and supported, have thus the potential to function as social glue in society. Despite its potential to transform European societies, hardly any research exists on age-diverse friendships. Hence, the time is ripe to uncover the full potential of age-diverse friendships to strengthen cooperation and tolerance across different societal groups in Europe.

Principal investigator: Bernadeta Goštautaitė

Project duration: 2024 06 01 – 2028 05 31

Project coordinator: University of Hohenheim (UHOH)

Project partners: University of Groningen (the Netherlands), ISM University of Management and Economics (Lithuania), University of London (United Kingdom), University of Trento (Italy)