The Elusive Mere Belonging

Gregory Walton and Geoffrey Cohen, researchers at Stanford University, have conducted a wide range of controlled experiments on students to study the effect of "mere belonging" on student persistence, task performance, GPA, etc.   They found that little things that established a little bit of social connectedness among people (like sharing a birthday or some other small thing in common with at least one other member of the team) increased the motivation and persistence that team members showed on a shared task.  

In simple terms:

Create a little bit of social connection, and Voila!  

Along comes better performance.

Walton and Cohen's work resonates with me, because I'm very familiar with how little it takes to help me feel more comfortable and motivated in a meeting, whether it be at work, at a social gathering, at church, etc.  In a work meeting, the words "Like Denise, I .... " or "I am on the same page as Denise." or "I also teach in that style." are music to my ears. The words don't necessarily have to be positive or affirming. They just have to provide, at a minimum, some temporary relief from feeling like the alien in the room.   

Especially in a job that requires a lot of teaching and leading, it is easy to go without "mere belonging" for days, if not weeks at a time.  In most of our meetings, we are expected to be the leaders in the room, if not the experts.  Students often believe that we are so old we couldn't possibly relate to their experiences and while wanting the same sense of mere belonging that we do, they often remain firmly convinced that such belonging can and never will come from something as ancient and disconnected as a tenured professor -- I also believe students think that when such tenured professors are not in class, we are locked up in a closet until such time that we are released once again into the blessed intellectual space that is the college classroom.  After all, if professors had a life outside of class, they would not be spending sufficient time on how, what, and how much to teach.   During the semester, these matters of teaching must be the central and only focus of our lives.

But I digress.

In our research meetings, we are often the only experts in the room in the area of expertise that prompted our contribution to and collaboration with the project at hand. By sorrowful definition, then, we often share that expertise in common with no other researchers in the room and mere belonging remains elusive once again.  Student researchers may share a common interest in our area of expertise, but the authority or experience barrier often prevents mere belonging from germinating between us. 

And so it goes, in higher education.   

Many meetings. Many interactions.  Much time spent with others.  

But, too often, strangely lonely.  

Mere Belonging remains elusive.

Interested in helping out? Complete our short survey on Workplace Belonging.  

Denise Wilson is a professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington. Her research interests in engineering education focus on belonging, engagement, and instructional support in the engineering classroom.