Braver Angels Program Evaluation
Braver Angels has been subject to a variety of rigorous, data-driven evaluation.
Bailey M. Oliver-Blackburn and April Chatham Carpenter, “But I don’t know if I want to talk to you,” Journal of Applied Communication Research (July 13, 2022). [Link]
Robert A. Blair, Jessica Gottlieb, Marie Schenk, and Christopher Woods, “Depolarizing Within the Comfort of Your Party: Experimental Evidence from Online Workshops,” OSF Preprints (May 9, 2023). [Link]
Braver Angels 2020-2021: Depolarizing During the Pandemic
Braver Angels Evaluation Team
2022 [Link]
Francesca Gino, Julia Minson, and Jeff Huizinga,” Braver Angels: A Grassroots Effort to Depolarize American Politics,” Harvard Business Review (March 9, 2020). [Link]
Hannah Baron, et. al, Can Americans Depolarize? Assessing the Effects of Reciprocal Group Reflection on Partisan Polarization (March 31, 2021). [Link]
Participant-Identified Effects of Better Angels Experiences
Braver Angels Evaluation Team
October 2019 [Link]
History Camp : Pre-Post Survey Analysis
The College Board
September 2018 [Link]
Event Evaluations: 2024 report (for 2023)
In addition, here are some data visualizations, suitable for printing or sharing via social media and electronic communications. There are three “pages,” with a common backside for each that has a QR code to the summary report:
Braver Angels 2022-23 Report:
BA 2023 Report Summary: 4-page overview (printer-friendly, mobile friendly)
BA 2023 Report: 19 pages of information that doesn’t include all the demographics or event-specific data
BA 2023 Report Extended: 53 pages of information, including 20+ pages of appendix data, most useful for researchers or people interested in the background behind the evaluation
Braver Angels 2020-2021 Report: Depolarizing During the Pandemic (January 2022): Multiple versions available on this site, including a 2-page executive summary, an 18-page report without appendices, and a 36-page extended report with appendices. See also this two-pager PDF.
Evaluation of Red/Blue Workshop by external researchers (2021): Policy Brief
Participant-Identified Effects of Better Angels Experiences (October 2019): Full Evaluation Document and One-Pager
College Board History Camp Pre-Post Survey Analysis (High School Debates, September 2018): Powerpoint Summary
Strategies to foster conversational receptiveness across the political divide – an analysis of the Red-Blue workshop and its training (2022)
Bridging the divide on climate solutions: Development, implementation, and evaluation of an online workshop for climate volunteers (2022)