Minority Status Distortion and Preference for In-group Ties

Abstract

To assess residents’ perceptions of social capital (social cohesion, place attachment, and neighboring), the authors create innovative measures of residents’ assessments of neighborhood ethnic minorities and the extent of social ties between members of the same ethnic group compared with chance. The authors use a sample of nearly 10,000 residents nested in 297 neighborhoods in two Australian cities. Residents who perceive more minorities in their neighborhood, who have more or fewer ties with members of the other ethnic group than expected by chance, or who live in neighborhoods with more intergroup ties than would be expected report lower levels of social capital.