Open AccessSocial sustainability and social (Dis)trust in outgroups: Evidence from Germany and Spain using the Factorial Survey
Author(s) -
Edurne Bartolomé,
Hermann Dülmer,
Lluis Coromina
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
cuadernos europeos de deusto
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.111
H-Index - 2
eISSN - 2445-3587
pISSN - 1130-8354
DOI - 10.18543/ced-64-2021pp81-109
Subject(s) - social psychology , social identity theory , ingroups and outgroups , ethnic group , psychology , perception , diversity (politics) , sustainability , factorial analysis , cultural diversity , social group , sociology , ecology , statistics , mathematics , neuroscience , anthropology , biology
In the short to medium term, ethnic diversity tends to reduce trust. This negative relationship can be explained by social identity theory and integrated threat theory. The latter theory distinguishes realistic (socio-economic) threat perceptions from symbolic (cultural) ones. Huntington believes that with the end of the Cold War, conflicts shifted from being primarily economic to cultural, mainly religious ones. The goal of this article is to disentangle for the first time the impact of different sources of perceived threat as well as of in-group/out-group–based differences on trust by using a factorial survey conducted in Bilbao (Spain) and Cologne (Germany). Our main findings are that although both towns differ in religious and socio-economic composition, their citizens possess a similar level of generalised trust and perceive socio-economic threat as being much stronger than cultural threat. Weak evidence is also found for in-group/out-group–based differences in particularised trust.
Recibido: 03 February 2021Aceptado: 10 March 2021