大象传媒

The more we learn about people, cultures, and environments different from our own, the more empathy we have for the experiences of others鈥攁nd the more our moral compasses veer toward fairness. Truth and learning go hand in hand with justice.

College campuses in the United States are considered ,聽and those who graduate .

But the type of education matters. A found that alumni from U.K. private schools were twice as likely to vote conservative as public school alumni, even after accounting for the fact that wealthier, more conservative people tend to choose private schools.

A found that students with more experiences with diversity鈥攅specially through diversity classes and positive interactions with diverse peers鈥攁re more likely to think critically (and confidently). 

Even those who believe ideas like critical race theory are 鈥渋ndoctrination鈥� agree that learning about social justice鈥攆ormally or informally鈥攍eads people to understand that systemic inequities are the cause of most socioeconomic differences. In 2023, social scientists from the conservative Manhattan Institute that students taught that the Black鈥搘hite pay gap is mainly due to were 14 percentage points more likely to agree with affirmative action policies in hiring. 

Exposure to multiple perspectives is also valuable in media consumption. Viewers who rely on networks known for misleading coverage鈥攍ike Fox News鈥攖end to take in fewer outside sources, while viewers on the liberal end of the spectrum .

Exposing people to more truthful news sources can push their values to be more progressive. hundreds of Fox News viewers, mostly Trump supporters, became measurably more progressive after being paid $15 an hour to watch up to seven hours of CNN a week for four weeks in 2020. 

While truth fosters justice, it turns out that justice also fosters truth. In , researchers found that children and adolescents with cognitive empathy鈥攚ho could imagine themselves in another鈥檚 shoes鈥攚ere less likely to deceive others for their own benefit. 

The truth can set us free.  

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Sonali Kolhatkar joined 大象传媒 in summer 2021, building on a long and decorated career in broadcast and print journalism. She is an award-winning multimedia journalist, and host and creator of聽大象传媒 Presents: Rising Up with Sonali, a nationally syndicated television and radio program airing on Free Speech TV and dozens of independent and community radio stations. She is also Senior Correspondent with the Independent Media Institute鈥檚 Economy for All project where she writes a weekly column. She is the author of聽Rising Up: The Power of Narrative in Pursuing Racial Justice聽(2023) and聽Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence聽(2005). Her forthcoming book is called聽Talking About Abolition聽(Seven Stories Press, 2025). Sonali is co-director of the nonprofit group, Afghan Women鈥檚 Mission which she helped to co-found in 2000. She has a Master鈥檚 in Astronomy from the University of Hawai鈥檌, and two undergraduate degrees in Physics and Astronomy from the University of Texas at Austin. Sonali reflects on 鈥淢y Journey From Astrophysicist to Radio Host鈥� in her 2014聽TEDx talk聽of the same name.

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