Segregation, mistrust and minorities

Abstract

Generalized trust is a value that leads to many positive outcomes for a society. It is faith in people you don’t know who are likely to be different from yourself. Yet, several people, most notably Robert Putnam, now argue that trust is lower when we are surrounded by people who are different from ourselves. I challenge this view and argue that residential segregation rather than diversity leads to lower levels of trust. Integrated and diverse neighborhoods will lead to higher levels of trust, but mainly if people also have diverse social networks. I examine the theoretical and measurement differences between segregation and diversity and summarize results on how integrated neighborhoods with diverse social networks increase trust in the US and the UK.