ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the concept of social resilience. Social resilience refers to people's willingness to persist in the face of uncomfortable social interactions. Certain individuals may be more socially resilient than others because of cognitive styles such as low need for closure. Because these individual differences reflect stable regularities and are therefore more resistant to change, our own research focuses on structures that facilitate social resilience. The chapter also focuses on creating dyadic spaces, which allows people to make and maintain interpersonal connections without the complications of coalitions. It suggest that diversity research and practice might refocus on the persistence of diverse relationships, as compared with first impressions, attitudes, and beliefs, and simply hiring people of different races. By creating social situations that allow people to bounce back after negative or merely awkward first impressions, long-term interaction with those who are somehow different from them.
