As our nation hurtles toward pivotal midterm elections, we are certain to hear politicians calling for unity. National polls reveal that worries about polarization have taken the top spot on the lists of concerns for people in the United States, moving ahead of almost every other issue, from affordability to immigration to the state of our democracy. And in a time of deep division, it makes sense they would try to heal our national wounds with rhetorical balm, even if differing ideas about unity ultimately render this ineffective.

We are continually told a story about how starkly divided we are. The obvious solution in this story is that we need to come together, embrace unity, and our problems will be fixed in the process.

But is the word—unity—actually a trap awaiting nonprofit leaders and grassroots organizers?

As researchers who study US culture at the FrameWorks Institute, a social science research nonprofit, our goal is to help mission-driven organizations create a more just society. We do this by helping them understand how people think about social issues and then applying that knowledge to improve communications and strategies.

Our research shows that unity, as a concept, doesn’t mean the same thing to all people. In fact, some conceptions of unity are quite dangerous and could lead to extreme harm if they take root. This is especially relevant in the context of upcoming election campaigns and issue debates—and the mindsets that meaningfully drive conversations about achieving unity through progress.

Division in Differing Ideas About Unity: Two Critical Cultural Mindsets

Our research revealed two competing cultural mindsets that underpin talk about unity: unity through progress and unity through restoration. These conflicting prisms lead to dramatically different ways of thinking about what divides us and what to do about it.

Unity through progress is a forward-looking mindset in which people see the need for us to come together to address injustices in order to advance as a country. In this mindset, unity can only happen if we grapple with and address what people see as longstanding challenges in our society like racism, sexism, and homophobia.

Unity through restoration, on the other hand, calls for a return to the way things “used to be,” when people imagine things were simpler and we were a less-divided country. Think of the idyllic, fictional scenes of the 1950s and 60s in Leave It to Beaver or The Andy Griffith Show.

Read the full article about differing ideas about unity by Clara Blustein Lindholm and Nat Kendall-Taylor at Nonprofit Quarterly.