SMU Assistant Professor of Psychology Jacinth Tan co-authored the study Socioeconomic Status Shapes Dyadic Interactions: Examining Behavioral and Physiologic Responses, which found that individuals with lower socioeconomic status showed greater physiological attunement to their interaction partners than wealthier individuals did, regardless of the partner’s status. SMU Asst Prof Tan said that growing social class divisions around the world are raising real concerns about social cohesion. She shared that one common solution proposed by researchers and policymakers is to encourage more social mixing, or interaction between people from different social backgrounds, in the hope of building understanding and bridging the divide. Asst Prof Tan also added that they are seeing greater calls for and efforts toward increasing diversity in higher education settings, workplaces and in communities, to foster greater mixing.
