Description
Past research suggests that increased ethnic diversity within a geographic context is related to more tolerant inter-ethnic attitudes and beliefs. The current study sought to show that as the diversity of neighborhood schools increased, the relationship between relatively diverse neighborhoods and more inclusive implicit perceptions of national identity would strengthen. The implicit assessment taken by participants tested how strongly they associated European Americans and Asian Americans with the concepts of either “American” or “foreign.” These data were obtained from a larger existing dataset through Project Implicit. Individual implicit scores were used as the dependent variable within a 2-level multilevel analysis, with participant as the level 1 unit of analysis and neighborhood as the level 2 unit of analysis. The neighborhood-level diversity predictors included the proportion of Asians (minority representation) and the distributional evenness of ethnicities (variety). To avoid multicollinearity with neighborhood diversity, school diversity measures were calculated as weighted indexes that captured the extent to which the average school’s diversity exceeded or fell below the neighborhood’s diversity. As neighborhood diversity increased, implicit perceptions of national identity became more inclusive. The weighted school diversity indices showed no main effects. Exploratory analyses were conducted using unweighted school diversity deviation scores. There was a marginal interaction between neighborhood diversity and the unweighted school diversity scores. The effect of neighborhood diversity on implicit perceptions of national identity was stronger when school diversity exceeded (rather than fell below) neighborhood diversity. Unexpectedly, when neighborhood diversity was low, higher diversity across schools was associated with less inclusive implicit perceptions of national identity. The effect of diversity on implicit perceptions at the neighborhood level replicates effects from past research. The moderation analysis reveals that while diversity within neighborhood schools is related to the implicit perceptions of its residents, its role is more complex than anticipated. In some ways, increased school diversity is related to less inclusive implicit perceptions of national identity. However, there was also tenuous evidence that as school diversity increased, neighborhood diversity became associated with more inclusive responses. Diversity at the neighborhood and school levels may therefore operate, in isolation or in conjunction, through distinct mechanisms.
