When I started thinking about what it would mean to create the conditions for people and the rest of nature to thrive, I came up with three areas that seems to me to cover, in broad terms, the work we need to do:

• build resilience

• regenerate nature

• heal society

There’s plenty to unpack in ‘build resilience’ and ‘regenerate nature’, but I think they work. ‘Heal society’ however I was less comfortable with. And perhaps that phrase actually misses the point.

Why I started with “heal society”

We’ve all seen the rise of intolerance, polarisation, persecution of minorities, immigrants and so on, that’s been supercharged by Trump, Orban, Farage, Musk and the rest.

It feels like society has become sick, and needs to be healed. Or as some others have described it, we need to repair the fabric of society.

There are several problems with this ways of thinking.

First, it feels pejorative and unhelpful to tell people that their society, and by extension, they are sick and in need of healing.

Second, it implies going back to something that was previously healthy or unbroken. Did a perfect society ever exist outside of an imagined golden age?

Third, is society actually sick or broken? If not, what’s the problem?

Is society actually sick or broken?

Paul Hanel, a psychologist at the University of Essex, reviewed a wide range of research to answer a similar, but slightly different question: “is society really in decline?”

He found:

• Tens of thousands of people across many cultures and countries rank values like loyalty, honesty and helpfulness highest, and values like power and wealth lowest.

• People’s actual observed behaviour (eg studies of CCTV footage), and experimental results (rather than their answers to a survey), back this up, showing that people generally do help others.

• Society isn’t polarised: Leave and Remain voters have very similar values, as do US Democrats and Republicans.

Sounds pretty healthy to me.

Paul concludes:

“In a nutshell, the evidence suggests that moral decline is not happening, even if there are examples of some bad behaviour on the rise.”

Our perception and the reality simply don’t match up.

What’s going on? Hanel argues that what we see in the media, both mainstream and “social” media, presents extreme views and extreme behaviours, that aren’t reflected in the vast majority of the population.

If society is ok, why are politics so toxic?

So if most people’s values and behaviour are positive and aren’t getting worse, how is it that governments are weakening or abandoning policies to tackle climate change, protect nature and look after the most vulnerable in society?

I had a fascinating conversation recently with Oliver Escobar, Professor of Public Policy and Democratic Innovation at the University of Edinburgh (well known for his work on Climate Assemblies).

He explained that some of his work focuses on ‘democratic repair’. We’ll be meeting again soon to discuss democratic repair in depth on the Thrivable Scotland podcast.

What’s the third focus for thriving?

For now, the point is that talking with Oliver helped me understand why I instinctively feel ‘healing society’ is necessary, even though the evidence shows that society is in good shape.

The problem is the multiple meanings of the word ‘society’.

Paul Hanel equates ‘society’ with ‘the general public’. But if we think of ‘society’ as “the community of people living in a particular country or region and having shared customs, laws, and organizations” (Apple Dictionary), then it becomes a clearer – because this includes organisations as part of society.

Organisations like local and national government, political parties, businesses, NGOs, TV stations and other news media, “social” media companies like X and Facebook.

And it’s these organisations that are, to differing extents, amplifying and normalising divisive and illiberal minority views, encouraging and emboldening more extreme politicians – and shifting political concensus with devastating consequences.

This feels like the sick part of society that really does need healing if we’re to create the conditions for thriving.

Countering plurastic ignorance?

But how do we take on this powerful nexus of evil? (Is evil too extreme? OK, gross self interest.)

I don’t know what the solution is. But a solution, one that we all have the power to apply – especially those of us working in NGOs and other organisations with a voice to reach members, communities and others – is to be like Dorothy and pull back the curtain and reveal the Wizard of Oz as a sham.

The sham here is the persistent belief that most people are selfish (valuing wealth, public image, success etc), rather than compassionate (valuing helpfulness, equality, the protection of nature etc).

The truth is the opposite: a study by the Common Cause Foundation found that three quarters of people hold compassionate values, and only a quarter hold selfish values.

The problem, revealed by the same study, is that most people believe that most other people are selfish. (The term for believing that a minority view is the majority view is ‘pluralistic ignorance’.)

This inaccurate perception isn’t just a curiosity, it really matters if we want people to thrive. Quoting from the Common Cause report:

People who hold this inaccurate belief about other people’s values feel significantly less positive about getting involved – joining meetings, voting,
volunteering. These people also report greater social alienation. They report
feeling less responsible for their communities, and they are less likely to
feel that they fit in with wider society.

And you can see how this can feed through into politics, creating a vicious downward spiral. Sam Hamptom and Tina Fawcett at the University of Oxford found that people care about climate change, but believe that most other people don’t care. They write:

[This underestimation of others’ concern] fuels a vicious cycle: silence begets silence. People hesitate to advocate for policies like cycle lanes or meat taxes, fearing social isolation, while politicians avoid championing measures seen as “career-limiting”. The result is a democracy trapped by unspoken consensus.

Healing Society v2

I believe addressing this misperception essential to heal society, and it’s probably the one aspect most of us, and most of our organisations, can fairly readily take action on.

But, it’s not actually easy to explain, certainly not in a succinct sentence. So, I’m going to avoid explaining, and simply get straight to the action:

to create the conditions for thriving, we need to focus on:

Healing Society: Bringing out the best in human nature by celebrating and exemplifying our innate values of cooperation and care for each other and the rest of nature.

(And for completeness… Building Resilience: Building our own resilience, and the resilience of others, of communities, and of the organisations and institutions we need. Regenerating Natural Systems: Allowing natural systems to recover and develop, helping us adapt to inevitable change, and bring us back within planetary boundaries.)

How does this conception of healing society work for you? Is ‘healing society’ the right term here? Does my suggested action (‘bring out the best…’) make sense?

Please share you thoughts in the comments!

If you want to explore this mismatch between what most people believe, and what they believe others believe, I highly recommend Perception Matters by the Common Cause Foundation, and Leading by example: how the rich and powerful can inspire more climate action by Sam Hampton and Tina Fawcett.

If you’re not convinced that people are innately cooperative and caring, or just want reminding that they are, Humankind: A Hopeful History by Rutger Bregman is a wonderful and inspiring book. (Link to bookshop.org, not owned by a billionaire. We may earn a commission.)

If you’re in Edinburgh, Edinburgh Soup is offering small grants (£250–£500) to grassroots projects that strengthen local communities. Up to four shortlisted projects will pitch at the next Edinburgh Soup event, with the audience deciding which project receives funding. Deadline to submit a project idea: 11th February 2026. Find out more here.