According to a study conducted in Hungarian schools, sitting students next to each other increased their likelihood of becoming friends, for both pairs of comparable students and pairs of students who differed in scholastic achievement, gender, or ethnicity. On August 11, 2021, Julia Rohrer of the University of Leipzig in Germany and colleagues will publish their findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE.
Proximity can boost friendships, according to a previous study. People, on the other hand, are more likely to form friendships with people who share similar qualities, such as gender, age, and race. It’s unclear how these two phenomena interact, particularly whether individual similarity increases the effects of proximity on friendship.
Rohrer and colleagues conducted an experiment in which they generated randomized classroom seating arrangements for 2,966 kids in grades 3 through 8 across 40 rural Hungary schools to investigate this subject. The students stayed in their assigned seats for one semester, after which they completed a survey on their friendships.
According to a statistical examination of the students’ demographics and reported friendships, sitting next to each other raised their chances of becoming mutual friends from 15% to 22%. (an increase of 7 percent).
Our research has highlighted two specific boundaries: gender and ethnic differences. Students in early adolescence make friendships with the same sex peers a feature that is difficult to change with light-touch seating chart interventions. Similarly, the goal to establish inter-ethnic friendship ties might require more intensive interventions.
Tamás Keller
All pairs of students, regardless of their educational achievement, gender, or ethnicity, had a higher likelihood of becoming friends (Roma or non-Roma ethnic identity).
The number of friendships increased more for comparable than dissimilar pairs of pupils, according to the study. This was due to the fact that comparable students’ baseline tendency for friendship was higher, therefore putting them next to each other pushed more of them across the threshold into true friendship than arranging different students together. This tendency was primarily driven by gender.
The effect of sitting together for students of Roma and non-Roma ethnicities was less certain than for pairs of students who were distinct in other ways, according to the researchers, especially considering the limited number of Roma students in their sample.
Overall, their findings imply that seating assignments could be useful tools for fostering diverse connections, which could help cultivate social skills and enhance attitudes toward people from other demographic groups.
Senior author Felix Elwert adds: “Friendships matter, for better or worse. Having friends improves happiness and health; but friendship networks also divide people, because humans mostly befriend others that are just like them.”
“Importantly, we found that sitting next to each other increased friendship potential for all children, regardless of their gender, class, or ethnic background. This demonstrates that simple (‘light-touch”) interventions can effectively diversify friendship networks.”
Co-author Tamás Keller adds: “Although teachers have a full control over arranging the classroom seating chart, inducing friendship by seating chart arrangement is an overlooked policy lever.”
“Our research has highlighted two specific boundaries: gender and ethnic differences. Students in early adolescence make friendships with the same sex peers a feature that is difficult to change with light-touch seating chart interventions. Similarly, the goal to establish inter-ethnic friendship ties might require more intensive interventions.”
