Cultural Diversity Broadens Social Networks

43 Pages Posted: 14 Jun 2019 Last revised: 12 Aug 2021

See all articles by Adrienne Wood

Adrienne Wood

Dartmouth College

Adam M. Kleinbaum

Tuck School of Business; Dartmouth College

Thalia Wheatley

Dartmouth College

Date Written: August 11, 2021

Abstract

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, that they would become social brokers. We tested this prediction by characterizing the social networks of eight Master of Business Administration cohorts (N=2,257). International students (N=773) from populations with 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. American students’ (N = 1,461) brokerage scores were also positively related to their home counties’ indices of present-day international connectivity (calculated from aggregate Facebook data) and their counties’ ancestral diversity. 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.

Keywords: social networks, diversity, culture, social brokerage, socio-ecology

Suggested Citation

Wood, Adrienne and Kleinbaum, Adam M. and Wheatley, Thalia, Cultural Diversity Broadens Social Networks (August 11, 2021). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3398802 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3398802

Adrienne Wood (Contact Author)

Dartmouth College ( email )

Department of Sociology
Hanover, NH 03755
United States

Adam M. Kleinbaum

Tuck School of Business ( email )

Hanover, NH
United States

HOME PAGE: http://bit.ly/kleinbaum

Dartmouth College ( email )

Hanover, NH 03755
United States

Thalia Wheatley

Dartmouth College ( email )

Hanover, NH 03755
United States

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