Previous research has claimed that diversity erodes trust, even though the empirical evidence is mixed and restricted to ethnic neighborhood diversity. Against the backdrop of increasing diversity within the political sphere and concurrently declining political trust, we examined the impact of social diversity on trust in groups of political representatives. In two experiments (N₁ = 109, N₂ = 248) we tested how the diversity of political parties affected citizens’ trust in them. In line with predictions of the stereotype content model, diverse parties were perceived as warmer and less competent than non‐diverse parties (Experiments 1–2). Additionally, party diversity was perceived as having more benefits, but also involving more threats (Experiment 2). Consequently, diversity had both positive (via warmth and benefits) and negative (via competence and threats) indirect effects on trust. These results help to untangle previously mixed, for the most part non‐experimental, findings of the relationship between diversity and trust.

中文翻译：

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一把双刃剑：社会多样性如何通过感知的能力和热情来影响对代表的信任

以前的研究声称，尽管经验证据混杂且仅限于种族邻里多样性，但多样性侵蚀了信任。在政治领域内多样性日益增加和政治信任度同时下降的背景下，我们研究了社会多样性对政治代表团体信任的影响。在两个实验中（N ₁  = 109，N ₂ = 248），我们测试了政党的多样性如何影响公民对其的信任。与对刻板印象内容模型的预测一致，与非多元化的参与者相比，多元化的参与者被认为更热情，能力更弱（实验1-2）。此外，各方的多样性被认为具有更多的好处，但同时也带来了更多的威胁（实验2）。因此，多样性对信任既有积极的影响（通过温暖和好处），也有消极的影响（通过能力和威胁）。这些结果有助于弄清以前对混合和信任之间关系的研究，在大多数情况下是非实验性的。