Cultural diversity broadens social networks.

Migration and mobility increase the cultural diversity of a society. Does this diversity have consequences for how people interact and form social ties, even when they join a new community? We hypothesized that people from regions with greater cultural diversity would forge more diversified social ties in a newly formed community, connecting otherwise unconnected groups. In other words, they would become social brokers . We tested this prediction by characterizing the social networks of eight Master of Business Administration cohorts ( N = 2,257) at a business school in the U.S. International students ( N = 773) from populations with both greater present day ethnic diversity and a history of extensive cultural intermingling were more likely to become social brokers than international students from less diverse nations. Domestic students' ( N = 1,461) brokerage scores were also positively related to the ancestral diversity of the U.S. county they identified as "home." The results of this study suggest that more culturally diverse social environments-defined here at multiple geographic and temporal scales-endow people with socially adaptable behaviors that help them connect broadly within new, heterogeneous communities. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).