Changing climates of conflict: A social network experiment in 56 schools
Open accessAbstract
Significance: Despite a surge in policy and research attention to conflict and bullying among adolescents, there is little evidence to suggest that current interventions reduce school conflict. Using a large-scale field experiment, we show that it is possible to reduce conflict with a student-driven intervention. By encouraging a small set of students to take a public stance against typical forms of conflict at their school, our intervention reduced overall levels of conflict by an estimated 30%. Network analyses reveal that certain kinds of students (called “social referents”) have an outsized influence over social norms and behavior at the school. The study demonstrates the power of peer influence for changing climates of conflict, and suggests which students to involve in those efforts.
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Bullying at schools decreases following interventions by popular children, who can operate as anti-bullying ambassadors.
“bullying at schools decreases following interventions by popular children, who can operate as anti-bullying ambassadors - if bullying is no longer cool, people stop doing it (Paluck et al., 2016).”
From The Challenge of Evolution to Religion (2019) · cites this paper as Paluck et al., 2016
School-wide interventions in which groups of students took a public stance against conflict were found to reduce conflict behavior at the school level.
“For example, school-wide interventions in which groups of students took a public stance against conflict (e.g., by giving public rewards, such as wristbands, to peers who engaged in friendly or conflict-mitigating behaviors) were found to reduce conflict behavior at the school level (Paluck & Shepherd, 2012; Paluck, Shepherd, & Aronow, 2016).”
From The "Why" and "How" of Narcissism: A Process Model of Narcissistic Status Pursuit (2020) · cites this paper as Paluck, Shepherd, & Aronow, 2016
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References 62 · Cited by 610
- Authors
- Paluck, E. L., Shepherd, H., & Aronow, P. M.
- Affiliations
- Princeton University (US)
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US)
- Yale University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Paluck, Elizabeth Levy
- Venue
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Publisher
- National Academy of Sciences
- Published
- 2016-01-04
- Volume
- 113
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 566-571
- ISSN
- 0027-8424 (ISSN-L)
- 1091-6490
- PMC
- PMC4725542
- OpenAlex
- W2231483534
- Cited by
- 610
- References
- 62
- Citations by year
- 2026: 40 · 2025: 55 · 2024: 48 · 2023: 69 · 2022: 50 · 2021: 66 · 2020: 163 · 2019: 48 · 2018: 30 · 2017: 27 · 2016: 12 · 2015: 1 · 2013: 1
- FWCI
- 61.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Update notices
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- William T. Grant Foundation
- Spencer Foundation
- Sage Foundation
- State of New Jersey Department of Education
- Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (P2CHD047879)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Education for Peace and Conflict Resolution
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime Patterns and Interventions
- Keywords
- school conflict, social norms, peer influence, social referents, social network analysis, student behavior, student discipline, normative influence
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Child, Conflict, Psychological, Humans, Schools, Social Support, Students
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