What adds 2 to resting cohesion?

[BanDHMO]

I see something weird with my US. Initially, its resting cohesion was about 2.45. I took over shortly after game start and began lowering inequality in order to up resting cohesion. After a while, I had 3 CPs, and noticed that resting cohesion was for some reason 0.51(!!!).

After a few turns, I got 5 CPs, still just investing in inequality, and suddenly resting cohesion was 2.61.

Since this all changed in the span of just several turns, I can only assume that there's something that gives -2 resting cohesion that I accidentally ran into and then remedied.

It wasn't rivalries or wars or anything obvious like that.

What could it have been?

[sadoeconomist]

Rivalries only boost cohesion if they are against nations within 1 control point of you. I've noticed Russia likes to fluctuate between 4 and 5 CP as it annexes neighbors, loses population, etc. and so the US's cohesion will jump up and down based on that.

[BanDHMO]

I think what it must have been is the Elite vs Public ideology. Since I had ~70% public opinion, then while I controlled less than half of CPs, the old elites were not matching the public cohesion very well. Then, once I took over all but 1 CPs, the ideological distance decreased. The fact that it's very close to exactly 2 must have been a coincidence.

From Wiki:
Public vs. Elite Ideology Always Reduce by 2 × Distance between Public Opinion vs Control Point owners

[Mistfox]

Originally posted by BanDHMO:

I think what it must have been is the Elite vs Public ideology. Since I had ~70% public opinion, then while I controlled less than half of CPs, the old elites were not matching the public cohesion very well. Then, once I took over all but 1 CPs, the ideological distance decreased. The fact that it's very close to exactly 2 must have been a coincidence.

From Wiki:
Public vs. Elite Ideology Always Reduce by 2 × Distance between Public Opinion vs Control Point owners

Each point of inequality is 3+ cohesion so if you fixed inequality even slightly, cohesion shoots up very fast.

[BanDHMO]

Originally posted by Mistfox:

Each point of inequality is 3+ cohesion so if you fixed inequality even slightly, cohesion shoots up very fast.

It certainly contributed, that's exactly why I'm trying to lower it, but it's a very slow process and wouldn't be enough to explain a swing of 2 points so suddenly. In all the time I've been working on the US, I only got it down by 0.3, which would give just 1 point, bringing me now to 2.9 resting cohesion. At the time when I clocked 2.6 in the original post, inequality was probably just 0.2 lower.

[RawCode]

wars and rivals do magic to cohesion, you actually can "fix"some of African nations with little conquest, getting stable high population nations really fast (but they absurdly poor).