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Evidence of these benefits and others has mostly been anecdotal, at least in the United States, but it is drawing new attention from social scientists, some of whom have created a national Cohousing Research Network. A study they conducted in 2011 found that 96 percent of people interviewed who lived in cohousing reported an improved quality of life; 75 percent felt their physical health was better than others their age; and 96 percent had voted in the 2008 presidential election.
Angela Sanguinetti, the director of the network and a postdoctoral researcher at University of California, Davis, recently published a paper in The Journal of Environmental Psychology on a survey she did of 559 cohousers. They reported a greater connection to nature based on two different widely used scales. (Many cohousers build sustainably, often using solar panels and other techniques that meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standards.)
Heidi Berggren, an associate professor of political science and women’s and gender studies at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, found that interdependent living often coincides with greater involvement in civic or political action, or both, including voting at twice the rate of the average American. Her research was recently published in Social Science Quarterly.
While the research of both Sanguinetti and Berggren suggests that cohousing could benefit society as a whole, there is little public support for it. One reason may be that the majority of those who benefit from cohousing, so far, have been white and relatively affluent.