Nudges Toward Equity: Social Belonging and Identity

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Since at least the 1970s, when Dr. Vincent Tinto first articulated the role of social integration in his theory of institutional departure, colleges have been concerned with students’ sense of belonging. Even if a student is academically prepared, financially secure, and has a clear sense of purpose, they need to feel a part of the campus community if they’re going to stick around. This sense of belonging can be essential, yet tenuous, for BIPOC and first-generation students who have historically been excluded from higher education and continue to face systemic barriers to their success.

Therefore, many psychologists have sought scalable ways to boost social belonging, perhaps none as effective as the intervention designed by Drs. Greg Walton and Geoff Cohen. In this paradigm, incoming college students are presented with the idea that all students struggle to adjust to college and that those challenges are transient. This message is conveyed via survey results, written vignettes, or confessional videos from upper-level students. Targeted students then typically write about their adjustment to college as a means of self-persuasion, further reinforcing the notion that these struggles are normal and temporary.

This brief intervention has proven wildly effective, especially among BIPOC students. In one long-term study, first-semester Black students who experienced the intervention while attending a predominantly white institution felt reaffirmed in their potential to succeed in college, studied more, and sent more emails to professors. These same students were happier, healthier, and earned better grades three years later, completely closing the achievement gap with their white peers, and they were more satisfied in their careers and lives a decade later. This intervention also increased first-year GPA and 2nd-year retention among Black, Latinx, Native American, and first-generation students attending a broad-access public university.

What Makes the Social Belonging Intervention Effective?

Sharing her story for the “I’m First” campaign, Michelle Obama described arriving at Princeton and not knowing “how to choose my classes or find the right classrooms; I didn’t even know how to furnish my dorm room.” These are stressful experiences for any new student, but they take on an insidious meaning for a new student questioning whether they belong in college.

The social belonging intervention doesn’t prevent these situations or make them any less stressful. Still, it reframes them in the mind of the student as having nothing to do with social identities (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status) and, therefore, nothing to do with whether they belong.

Across several studies, white students showed little association between daily adversity and perceived fit in college. If they get lost looking for their classroom, they may feel stressed or embarrassed, but they move on. BIPOC students’ daily perceived fit is strongly correlated with daily adversity, rising on good days and crashing on bad ones. Getting lost says to them, “I don’t belong here.” The social belonging intervention decouples daily adversity from perceived fit, thereby stabilizing the sense of belonging.

When Is the Social Belonging Intervention Most Effective?

While researching this post, I had several questions about how the social belonging intervention aligns with ongoing systemic change and social justice efforts. We want students to believe that their challenges are normal and temporary. But what if they’re not?

BIPOC and first-generation students across the country face persistent barriers tied to their social identities, and we don’t want to insinuate that these detrimental experiences, which may be common, are in any way acceptable.

I shared my concerns with Dr. Walton. He graciously provided several resources and insights to illustrate the social belonging intervention’s conditions can have their most significant impact. First, the intervention is meant to normalize universal adversities. Every first-year student gets confused choosing classes, gets lost on campus, or earns a bad grade. Still, it’s their reaction to those experiences that determines whether they integrate into the college community.

Therefore, social belonging interventions only work on campuses in which integration is genuinely possible for BIPOC and first-generation students. This intervention will not preserve belongingness in the face of racism, discrimination, and exclusion, which are neither normal nor temporary. Under such circumstances, a social belonging intervention may take the form of gaslighting, further damaging BIPOC students’ sense of belonging.

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This intervention also grants BIPOC students agency in the development of their social belonging. The idea that daily adversity is temporary is not meant to imply passivity but rather the opportunity for students to find a place on campus. In this way, the social belonging intervention aligns with growth mindsets but focuses on students’ ability to cultivate belonging rather than intelligence. Again, this message is only helpful on a college campus where all students can find a place to belong.

Using Social Belonging Interventions on Campus

If you’re interested in using a social belonging intervention to increase equity on your campus, many free resources are available. For example, you can obtain a 30-minute social belonging program tailored to four-year universities from the Project for Education Research that Scales (PERTS).

For community college practitioners, social belonging is part of this Student Success Toolkit released last year by ideas42. But before moving forward, you’ll need an honest assessment of whether your campus is ready for this type of intervention. If BIPOC and first-generation students are regularly experiencing exclusion, systemic changes may be necessary before the social belonging intervention can be effective. To borrow an analogy from Dr. Walton, you need good soil before you plant any seeds.

If you’re thinking about more extensive supports for BIPOC and first-generation students, the social belonging intervention dovetails nicely with other nudges for equity. Along with growth mindsets, stress reappraisals that encourage college students to interpret academic struggles as challenges instead of threats can be translated to social struggles.

Likewise, self-affirmations of students’ most important values can protect a sense of belonging in the face of stressful, daily adversities. Finally, difference-education interventions, which explicitly acknowledge how different students (e.g., first-generation vs. continuing-generation) experience college very differently, can reframe social identities as a source of resilience rather than a reason to question one’s place in college.

Consider all of these techniques as tools you can employ to ensure that all students feel like they belong at your college regardless of their social identities.