Cohesion Without Consensus: Attitudinal Profiles of Social Cohesion in Australia

ABSTRACT

Headline indicators of social cohesion in Australia have remained stable in recent years despite rising political polarisation and declining institutional trust worldwide. Yet recent protests and incidents of ethnically and politically motivated violence suggest that cohesion may be under strain. If cohesion is understood not as the pursuit of unity but as the capacity of a society to coexist and prosper amid a plurality of views, identifying the values and attitudes that strengthen or undermine this capacity becomes critical. This paper applies latent class analysis to a sample of 7613 respondents in the 2025 Mapping Social Cohesion study—a nationally representative survey of Australians' attitudes and perceptions—to derive five classes across 12 theoretically relevant constructs. Each class is shown to have a distinct attitudinal and demographic profile, followed by an examination of the associations between class membership, social, civic and political participation, and sense of belonging in Australia. The classes differ markedly in their potential to stabilise or strain cohesion, demonstrating heterogeneity that aggregate indices can conceal. The findings highlight the need for tailored communication, engagement and policy strategies that ease tensions and strengthen cohesion, rather than treating any group as inherently problematic.