Urban income segregation is a widespread phenomenon that challenges societies across the globe. Classical studies on segregation have largely focused on the geographic distribution of residential neighborhoods rather than on patterns of social behaviors and interactions. In this study, we analyze segregation in economic and social interactions by observing credit card transactions and Twitter mentions among thousands of individuals in three culturally different metropolitan areas. We show that segregated interaction is amplified relative to the expected effects of geographic segregation in terms of both purchase activity and online communication. Furthermore, we find that segregation increases with difference in socio-economic status but is asymmetric for purchase activity, i.e., the amount of interaction from poorer to wealthier neighborhoods is larger than vice versa. Our results provide novel insights into the understanding of behavioral segregation in human interactions with significant socio-political and economic implications.

中文翻译：

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城市和在线空间中的隔离互动

城市收入隔离是一种普遍现象，对全球社会构成挑战。关于隔离的经典研究主要集中在居民区的地理分布上，而不是社会行为和互动的模式上。在这项研究中，我们通过观察信用卡交易和Twitter在不同文化背景下三个大都市地区数千人之间的提及来分析经济和社会互动中的隔离。我们显示，就购买活动和在线交流而言，相对于地理隔离的预期效果而言，隔离的互动会被放大。此外，我们发现隔离会随着社会经济地位的不同而增加，但对于购买活动而言是不对称的，即 从较贫穷到较富裕社区的互动量大于反之。我们的研究结果提供了对人类互动中行为隔离的理解的新颖见解，对社会政治和经济产生了重大影响。