I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure out what exactly people are afraid of, and what they think might happen if they talk to a stranger. But people might worry about different things when they imagine talking to different partners. For example, they might worry more about saying the wrong thing when their partner is a different ethnicity vs. the same ethnicity. This project looks specifically at cross-generational conversations: conversations with someone who is a much different age than you.
This project is ongoing, but we have shared initial results with our community partners, and are happy to share our report with you too. Please contact me if you’d like to learn more about our findings, use the results of our research (e.g., to help recruit volunteers), share the results of our research, or propose a future research study.
Reports
Blog Posts
- Apr, 2022. “Age is just a number: Cross-generational conversations are more positive than you expect” (Authored by post-doctoral research assistant Dr Josh Moreton)
Community Partners
- The Cares Family connects younger and older people who live in the same neighbourhood.
- United for All Ages has a great newsletter that summarizes news and events across the cross-generational space.
Gillian M. Sandstrom 