Thread by @Noahpinion

1/Here is a thread about the evidence regarding diversity and trust.

Many immigration restrictionists allege that diversity decreases trust. For example, @DouthatNYT: nytimes.com/2018/01/27/opi…

2/As it happens, I did some reading on this subject when I wrote a big blog post about homogeneity vs. diversity last April: noahpinionblog.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-si…

3/There are certainly studies showing a negative CORRELATION between diversity and social trust.

The most famous of these is Robert Putnam's finding that diversity causes social isolation ("hunkering"): onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.…

4/However, the size of the effect that Putnam finds is pretty small: econlog.econlib.org/archives/2017/…

5/Here's a sampling of some other studies.

A study in Denmark found a negative correlation between reported trust and ethnic diversity at the municipality level from 1979-2009. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.…

6/A study in Britain find that people who stay in communities after those communities become more diverse report more negative attitudes toward their communities afterward.

academic.oup.com/esr/article/32…

7/A study in the Netherlands finds that increasing diversity in classrooms made kids more likely to choose friends of similar ethnicity.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jo…

8/A study found that across Europe, different-ethnicity immigration tends to decrease social trust, while similar-ethnicity immigration tends to increase it.

academic.oup.com/sf/article-abs…

9/And of course, in econ, Alesina and co-authors have repeatedly found that diversity reduces public goods provision. nber.org/papers/w6009

10/Here is a blog post by an alt-right blogger listing a bunch of other studies, although most are less definite or are of lower quality than the ones I listed: heartiste.wordpress.com/diversity-prox…

11/But there are also lots of studies casting doubt on the "diversity reduces trust" story.

For example, a study in America found that very high levels of diversity were correlated with HIGHER than normal levels of social trust. (cc @DouthatNYT) onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.…

12/A recent study in Southern California found that ethnic diversity is associated with decreased crime and higher home values.

mfi.soceco.uci.edu/files/2016/04/…

13/Another study in Britain showed NO relationship between ethnic diversity and trust.

epubs.surrey.ac.uk/15382/2/Sturgi…

14/A study in Europe found a POSITIVE effect of diversity on trust in the long term!

rug.nl/research/porta…

15/A 2014 literature SURVEY finds that "ethnic diversity is not related to less interethnic social cohesion."

annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.114…

16/A 2008 study in Europe found that ethnic diversity didn't decrease social capital.

rug.nl/research/porta…

17/A 2007 study in Britain found that the negative effect of diversity on social cohesion disappears after controlling for economic variables.

researchgate.net/profile/Natali…

18/There are plenty more.

In other words, @DouthatNYT should not be so quick to treat the idea that "diversity reduces social trust" as a scientific fact.

The jury is still out.

19/Furthermore, diversity is certainly NOT the only thing that affects social trust. There are many other factors.

20/For example, a shared national identity is very important for social trust: marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolu…

21/Advocating - or accepting - race-based immigration policies in an America where only half of young children are white would damage our shared national identity, and hence would REDUCE social trust. (cc @DouthatNYT)

22/The idea that America could gain so much social trust by engineering our population to be 2% or 3% whiter that it would be worth the DAMAGE we'd do to social trust by endorsing a race-based national identity is insane.

A fantasy.

An insane fantasy.

23/There is far more social trust to be gained by fighting against racism than there is from engineering the population to be whiter.

(end)

Oh, and just for fun, here is a paper showing that having white and black people live together in college decreases racism. aeaweb.org/articles?id=10…

Oh, and here's a paper showing that close contact with minorities creates a positive correlation between diversity and trust. ssb.no/omssb/tjeneste…

Here's a paper I didn't know about! A meta-analysis!!

Conclusion: Diversity reduces contact with neighbors, but increases trust in other races, and does not affect generalized trust or pro-social behavior such as volunteer work.

openpsych.net/forum/attachme…