Dederichs, Kasimir;
Franken, Rob;
Wiertz, Dingeman;
Tolsma, Jochem;
(2025)
Ingroup preferences, segregation, and intergroup contact in neighborhoods and civic organizations.
PNAS Nexus
, 4
(9)
, Article pgaf256. 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf256.
(In press).
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Dederichs et al. - PNAS Nexus 2025 - Ingroup Preferences, Segregation, and Intergroup Contact in Neighborhoods and Civic Organizations.pdf - Published Version Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Segregation perpetuates social inequalities and undermines social cohesion. It can already emerge if individuals act upon weak preferences to associate with similar others. Yet, little remains known about how such ingroup preferences compare across social settings and different identity dimensions. To address this gap and to isolate ingroup preferences from other drivers of segregation, three large-scale, preregistered conjoint experiments on choices of neighborhoods and civic organizations were conducted (N1 = 2,733, N2 = 2,743, N3 = 2,707). The results reveal powerful ingroup preferences in both settings and across all studied dimensions (age, ethnicity, education). These preferences are strongest among individuals with little real-life exposure to outgroups and do not depend on the expected intensity of contact. As an exception, lower-educated individuals display no ingroup preferences along educational lines. Altogether, the results highlight that ingroup preferences are pervasive, can pose a critical obstacle to intergroup contact, and should thus be carefully considered in desegregation efforts.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Ingroup preferences, segregation, and intergroup contact in neighborhoods and civic organizations |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf256 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf256 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of National Academy of Sciences. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Keywords: | ingroup preferences, segregation, neighborhoods, civic organizations, conjoint experiments |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education > IOE - Social Research Institute |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10213308 |
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