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Video: The dignity index
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Video: The dignity index

UNITE is a national initiative to ease divisions, prevent violence, and solve problems. UNITE designed the Dignity Index, an eight-point scale that measures the level of contempt or dignity in a selected passage of speech. Lower scores (1-4) reflect a lack of dignity and the presence of contempt, with the lowest score (1) showing the most contempt. The higher scores (5-8) reflect language grounded in dignity, with the highest score (8) showing the most dignity.

In September 2022, a team from the University of Utah that included the Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute, the David Eccles School of Business, and the Hinckley Institute of Politics joined the project UNITE effort to pilot the Dignity Index in Utah. With a team of 22 student coders from politically and ideologically diverse backgrounds, the Utah pilot tested using the Dignity Index in coding passages in Utah political campaigns.

Trustworthy Elections Report
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Trustworthy Elections Report

Conservatives and liberals distrust our electoral system for vastly different reasons—from voter fraud and election security to voter suppression and peaceful transfer of power. Leading up to the 2024 election, Braver Angels worked to rebuild this trust by seeking solutions supported by people across the political spectrum.

This report is based on 26 workshops with 194 evenly-balanced Red and Blue participants. Together, they found 727 unanimous points of agreement across values, concerns, and solutions. This report has distilled those into three principles:

  • “Voting should be easy. Cheating should be hard.”
  • “Every citizen should have an equal say in who will govern them; this is done through free and fair elections.”
  • “The American government will fail if candidates refuse to accept any outcome other than victory.”

This report—based on hundreds of cross-partisan conversations—could provide a blueprint for restoring trust in our elections.

Read the report.

ActiVote App
Research

ActiVote App

The easy-to-use, nonpartisan app ActiVote – learn more about the features – educates voters on important issues, when and where they can cast their vote, connects them with their elected officials, and allows them to make their voice heard by quickly answering key polling questions.

Join voters in all 50 states, of all parties and all ages & join in on #DailyDemocracy.

Learn more about ActiVote

Redistricting
Glossary

Redistricting

The redrawing of legislative district boundaries. A 1967 federal law requires House members be elected from single-member districts that (within each state) have nearly identical populations. House maps must be redrawn after reapportionment but before the first congressional election of each decade, based on population changes in each state revealed by the census.

Read more about redistricting.

Activities to Practice Discussions
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Activities to Practice Discussions

The "Nurturing Intentional Empathy" activity guides participants to practice empathy by viewing situations from others' perspectives, delving into their thoughts and feelings to foster deeper understanding.

Access the toolkit here

The "Critical Thinking in Discussions" activity encourages participants to analyze others' arguments, assess their positions, and reflect on their own agreement or disagreement, thereby enhancing critical engagement in discussions.

Access the toolkit here

Podcast: High conflict vs good conflict-The vital difference
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Podcast: High conflict vs good conflict-The vital difference

Every day we are bombarded with negative news and polarizing opinions from politicians, pundits, and others who seek attention, power, and money by escalating division. This episode’s guest, Amanda Ripley, calls them "conflict entrepreneurs." Amanda explains why she believes the problem we face in America isn't too much conflict. Instead, it’s the type of disagreement we are having. We hear about the crucial differences between constructive conflict, where different sides seek to find common ground, and destructive conflict where discord distills into a good-versus-evil kind of feud, with an "us" and a "them".

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Podcast: AI revolution: Disaster or great leap forward?
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Podcast: AI revolution: Disaster or great leap forward?

Generative Artificial Intelligence has the power to transform lives and change our jobs. In this episode, Richard and Jim discuss the potential for good and bad from large, creative AI models such as ChatGPT.

The show's guest is Nathanael Fast, who serves as Director of the Neely Center for Ethical Leadership and Decision Making and Co-Director of the Psychology of Technology Institute. Professor Fast teaches in the MBA, Ph.D., and Executive Education programs at USC Marshall in Los Angeles.

ChatGPT reached over 100 million active users within two months of its release. Consumers have used it to write essays, take tests, crack jokes and write poetry in response to questions or prompts. Richard and Jim raise the questions we need to ask about rapidly changing forms of artificial intelligence. Should we be scared or excited… or both?

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