How Loose Social Connections Can Mend Political Rifts
Eva M Meyersson Milgrom, a prominent social scientist and professor emerita from Stanford University, presents a compelling case for the power of weak social ties in healing deep political divisions. Her research reveals that these connections, often overlooked in our daily lives, serve as essential civic infrastructure that can transform how we perceive and interact with others across ideological boundaries.
The Transformative Power of Bridge Ties
Consider the story of Shoshana, who arrived alone at a Brandi Carlile music festival after experiencing another unsuccessful round of IVF. During an emotional song about motherhood, she found herself crying in the middle of the crowd. Two complete strangers stepped closer and wordlessly wrapped their arms around her until her breathing stabilized. "That's when I realized," Shoshana later reflected, "this place isn't just about music."
Over the following five days, Shoshana connected with dozens of women from different parts of the world with diverse life stories. She was tapping into what Milgrom calls a "social pipeline"—a loosely connected network of weak ties that cross the boundaries that normally structure our lives. These connections transcend age, gender, work, class, culture, politics, belief systems, and life stages.
Beyond Traditional Social Networks
Research dating back to Mark Granovetter's seminal work has consistently demonstrated that major opportunities—including jobs, breakthrough ideas, new paths, and life-altering connections—typically originate not from our closest friends, but from acquaintances, near-strangers, and people in different social circles. However, Milgrom's work reveals that not all weak ties are created equal.
"The ties that really matter are bridge ties," Milgrom explains. "These are connections that take us into new social spheres where we know no one at all. They cross the boundaries that normally structure our lives." Imagine someone in your running club introducing you to a group of board game enthusiasts you've never met before. This bridge tie enables you to explore interests you've never been able to develop.
Building Social Resilience
Shoshana's annual festival attendance gave her access to a constantly changing social pipeline where she makes new connections alongside people she meets year after year. Some remain friendly strangers, while other relationships deepen in unexpected ways. She has become part of informal music circles that nurture her love of singing and helped festival friends through personal challenges.
"They don't demand my whole life," Shoshana noted. "But they give me access to a larger one." Bridge ties matter not only because they widen our social reach, but because they make us more resilient. When we need advice, bridge ties tell us what they actually think, not what we want to hear—because they have less stake in pleasing us. They help us through life's major transitions, from landing new jobs to moving cities to retirement, without making demands on our time or seeking commitment.
The Fragility of Overlapping Networks
Contrast this with tight-knit circles where everyone knows everyone else. In such settings, your entire social world is built on sameness. A difference of opinion can be perceived as wrong or even dangerous. A single conflict can unravel your entire social life, leaving you isolated. When our social ties overlap too much, we don't just lose a friend—we lose access to our entire social world.
This fragility helps explain why today's extreme political polarization feels so personal. We no longer have social lives that can absorb disagreement because we lack the connective tissue of bridge ties that make difference and disagreement survivable.
Practical Applications in Community Organizing
By bringing us into contact with others through shared interests rather than shared beliefs, bridge ties allow us to see others in multidimensional ways rather than as representatives of a single political, cultural, or religious category. They teach us how to practice living with difference by cultivating familiarity across our differences.
We can see this in action in cities like Minneapolis, where diverse networks of loosely connected people have deliberately come together to resist ICE operations and support immigrants and Black and brown residents. These networks deliver meals, alert communities about ICE activity, and document violence. Their power comes precisely from protesters' ability to stand up for neighbors across lines of culture, class, politics, and faith.
Historical Context and Modern Relevance
These actions evoke what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his Letter from Birmingham Jail: "We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality... Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly." King was speaking about justice, but he was also describing a social structure based not on sameness or tribal loyalty, but on integrating with people different from ourselves.
In Minneapolis, a white Jewish congregation and a largely Latino Lutheran church held joint prayer services amid ICE operations. Members provided food, medicine, and transportation to Latino and Somali immigrants, sharing risk and offering protection to those targeted by ICE. Similarly, the Israeli human rights organization Rabbis for Human Rights mobilizes volunteers each year to protect Palestinian farmers during the olive harvest.
The Essential Civic Infrastructure
"In an era of division, cultivating bridge ties is not a soft social skill," Milgrom emphasizes. "It is essential civic infrastructure—our lives and democracies depend on it." Through her own experience with her Palestinian former daughter-in-law, Milgrom gained firsthand insight into living conditions in Gaza and found ways to offer support.
These instances underscore how bridge ties connect us with profoundly different social worlds, allowing essential resources, ideas, and understanding to flow between them. As we navigate increasingly polarized times, intentionally cultivating these weak connections may be one of our most powerful tools for building more resilient, tolerant, and interconnected communities.
