I was delighted to be interviewed on the Joe Finnegan Show on Shannonside Northern Sound radio last week about the prevalence of community spirit in Ireland, along with Fiona McCaffrey Jones, an inspirational community activist and someone who epitomises the true meaning of local community spirit. 

Research conducted by BehaviourWise and Empathy Research in October shed light on people’s experiences of local community spirit across Ireland, and the effect it has on emotions and behaviour.   Simply recalling an experience of local community spirit made people feel proud, happy, and inspired. It meant people were significantly more likely to say they would shop in local independent businesses, buy locally sourced food or drink, visit a local farmers market, volunteer for a local good cause, or attend a local cultural or sporting event.  These behaviours will matter greatly to small local businesses and community-based organisations over the coming weeks.  The more we foster local community spirit, the more we behave in ways that help all boats rise.

Research approach:

We conducted an online survey with a nationally representative sample to understand people’s experiences of local community spirit across Ireland and how these experiences affect them. We split our sample into two groups. We asked the first group if they could recall an example of positive community spirit in their local area, if so to describe it, when it had taken place and how it made them feel. We treated the second group as a control group. We then asked all participants about their behavioural intentions and compared the responses across both groups.

Effect on our emotions:

Five key themes emerged from the almost 700 stories of community spirit shared with us: social connection, caring for others, improving the local environment, local initiatives, and celebration or tribute. Experiences varied from small, individual acts of kindness to collaborative group efforts. They give an insight into the true meaning of local community spirit as it is understood and experienced by people in everyday situations. Just over half of the stories shared took place during the pandemic. Others took place long before it, showing such incidents can live long in the memory.

The effect that recalling these incidents had on people’s emotions was notable: most reported feeling proud (64%), happy (64%) or inspired (43%). Some felt surprised (11%) or amused (6%).

Effect on our behaviour:

We asked participants about behaviours that contribute to the vitality of every local community. We found that those asked to recall examples of local community spirit were significantly more likely to say they would shop in local independent businesses, buy locally sourced food or drink, visit a local farmers market, volunteer for a local good cause, or attend a local cultural or sporting event. They were also more likely to say they would join a local loyalty scheme if one were to become available in their area and would be more willing to contribute to set-up costs.

In summary:

Recalling examples of local community spirit has a positive effect on our emotions and makes us more likely to behave in ways that support our local community, something very important right now as we set out on our road to recovery.