Opening doors through empathy
Political polarisation is making politics increasingly toxic with public trust in governments diminishing in many parts of the world. When politicians reduce complex issues to simple soundbites or put party politics first, this can feed into societal divisions rather than nurturing communal bonds.
Research shows that approaching conversations with empathy increases the chances of broadening the perspectives of those who hold different views [1]. Empathy requires open, honest and respectful communication and efforts to understand the perspectives and concerns of others, even if you disagree with them. Approaching conversations with empathy opens up the door to find shared interests and goals that can help bring people together and create shared visions for moving forward (more on that in Module 5!).
Wellbeing economics is, by definition, a unifying concept that transcends political divides. It's not a question of 'left' or 'right'. Internationally, calls for a wellbeing economy have come from parties across the political spectrum, such as the Conservative Party in the UK, the Christian Democrats in Germany, the Liberal Party of Canada, the Labour Party of New Zealand, and the Scottish National Party. The United Kingdom has an All Party Parliamentary Group on Wellbeing Economics and in both the WEGo co-founding countries of Iceland and New Zealand, the vision of a wellbeing economy has been supported by a broad-based political coalition, giving strength to the wellbeing economy agenda.
An economy that delivers social and ecological wellbeing is an economy that works for everyone. A wellbeing economy takes an evidence-informed approach to policy development and decision-making, building on a holistic notion of societal progress. We will dive deeper into this in Module 6.
References
[1] Santos, L. A., Voelkel, J. G., Willer, R., & Zaki, J. (2022). Belief in the utility of cross-partisan empathy reduces partisan animosity and facilitates political persuasion. Psychological Science, 33(9), 1557-1573. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221098594