Studies and results from around the world

In Spain, Nextdoor, in partnership with the Observatory of Unwanted Loneliness, created by the ONCE Foundation, released the findings of a new study in 2023 around the economic costs of loneliness. The study found that unwanted loneliness negatively impacts individuals’ quality of life and imposes considerable economic costs on both the national healthcare system and productivity. Below are some details supporting these findings:

• Unwanted loneliness in Spain creates an economic burden estimated at 14 billion euros per year, representing 1.17% of Spain’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2021. The costs are mainly attributed to increased use of healthcare services, costing over 5.6 billion euros per year, and drug consumption, costing nearly 496 million euros.
• Productivity losses related to unwanted loneliness amount to over 8 billion euros annually, roughly 0.67% of the GDP.
• Unwanted loneliness results in a decrease in quality of life, equating to a loss of over 1 million Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs), and nearly 18,000 QALYs lost annually due to premature deaths. This equates to a 2.79% reduction in healthy years of life for the Spanish adult population.

A study conducted in collaboration with Yale Law School tested whether social media platforms can be designed to encourage more civil conversations among neighbors, promoting individual and community well-being. The study prompted neighbors on Nextdoor to move their popular posts from their neighborhood-wide feed to new groups dedicated to discussion of that specific topic,  and included an experiment that randomized the announcement of community guidelines to members who join these groups.

Published in October 2022, the results led to content that was less likely to be reported and more likely to be virtuous in tone, which indicates that platform architecture can be used to positively shape the civility of conversations. This research demonstrates that Nextdoor considers the importance of the design, structure, and affordance of its platform when seeking to promote civility and other prosocial behaviors.

In order to help Nextdoor volunteer moderators grow as leaders in their communities, we introduced an inclusive moderation course designed to improve inclusive communication and moderation skills. We partnered with Stanford SPARQ to measure the impact and efficacy of the course material in 2022.

The analysis found that after completing the course, >95% of participants indicated they would take action when they encounter scenarios of tone policing, racial profiling, and coded language. 

Since 2015, Nextdoor has partnered with Dr. Jennifer Eberhardt, a social psychologist at Stanford University and member of our Neighborhood Vitality Advisory Board, to better understand how to mitigate implicit bias. We found that adding friction to the posting process helps slow people down and consider their own bias. The result was a complete overhaul of our crime and safety post flow that helps to educate members around bias and forces people to slow down and think before they post. Ultimately, these tactics have led to a 75% decrease in racial profiling on the app.

Nextdoor has continued to work with Dr. Eberhardt and her team to introduce additional moments of friction across the platform to foster more productive conversations online and in the real world.