How do we teach the world to disagree genuinely, thoughtfully, and kindly?
Training Teens to Disagree Better
Using Media to Turn Down the Heat
Conflict Management in Healthcare
Cutting-edge research to help people collaborate through the toughest disagreements.
The Constructive Disagreement Project at the Harvard Kennedy School develops, tests, and disseminates low cost, scalable interventions to support constructive engagement with opposing views. Our work is geared toward increasing understanding and reducing animosity across lines of disagreement.
What Differentiates Our Approach
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We believe in testing all theories, no matter how compelling. Experimentation -- rather than reliance on intuition and experience – saves time and money. We use randomized controlled trials to evaluate interventions for American, Middle Eastern, and Eastern European conflicts.
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Our research is centered on the key role of behavior (especially language) in shaping conflict. Prior research has focused on what people think and how they feel about their counterparts. We focus on behavior because it is visible, measurable, and contagious.
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We believe that constructive disagreement is a skill requiring training and practice. But people are busy and impatient. We use behavioral science to design training that is impactful for individual learners and can be scaled to organizations and communities.
How do we help our partners?
Our goal is to work with organizations in education, healthcare and the media to design and test interventions for constructive disagreement.
But if you are from another sector, we’ll talk to you too!
Our partners benefit from our expertise and receive training interventions at minimal or even no cost. In return, we work with them to design studies to advance academic knowledge and improve the efficacy of our approach.
“Working with the researchers from the Constructive Disagreement Project has been instrumental in designing innovative ways of using media to reduce polarization. They are thoughtful, bold, and creative.
I look forward to partnering with them again!”
—Francisco Caceres
3 Times Emmy Winning Journalist and Producer