‘People prefer to associate with people who are very similar to themselves,’ explains sociologist Jochem Tolsma. ‘When given the choice, they opt for a neighbourhood or association with “people like us”.’
Tolsma and his colleagues asked thousands of people to choose between neighbourhoods they would like to move to and communities (such as sports clubs or cultural organisations) they would like to join. The neighbourhoods and communities differed in terms of social composition and other relevant characteristics such as financial costs, travel time and social cohesion.
Our kind of people
The results show that people consistently choose environments with more peers, people with the same migration background and the same level of education. The only exception was that respondents without a university degree had no problem interacting with people with a university degree.
Sociologist Rob Franken of Utrecht University: 'Dutch people without a migration background were willing to travel ten minutes longer every day to do their shopping if this meant they could live in a neighbourhood without residents with a Turkish or Moroccan migration background, rather than a neighbourhood where a quarter of the residents have that background.'
Reinforced effect
The researchers also observed that when someone lives in a neighbourhood or belongs to a sports club where there are many people like themselves, their preferences for their own group are reinforced. Tolsma: 'People actively follow their preferences in their daily lives. This finding makes it likely that segregation and preferences for one's own group reinforce each other. We must try to prevent deeper social divisions in society, because these divisions erode social cohesion, which could pose a threat to democracy. One thing that could help is to require sports clubs to meet certain quotas in order to promote diversity. Or to make neighbourhoods so attractive that people from different backgrounds are willing to interact with each other more often.'