Interethnic contact is important for social cohesion and has been shown to vary with people’s socio-economic status (SES). There is some evidence that SES has opposite effects on interethnic contact for non-Western ethnic minorities and for majority members in Western countries. Whereas minority members with a higher SES tend to have more contact with natives, natives with a higher SES tend to have less inter-ethnic contact. To replicate and further understand these contrasting findings, we focused on interethnic friendships in particular and tested simultaneously for majority and minority members whether preferences for cultural similarity, opportunities to meet ethnic others, and disapproval of third parties, mediate the relationship between SES and having interethnic friendships. Analyses of 368 natives and 267 non-Western ethnic minority members in the Netherlands confirmed the contrasting effects of SES on interethnic friendships for these two groups. Importantly, we found that for minority members higher SES was related to more friendships with natives through more meeting opportunities. For natives, higher SES was related to fewer friendships with ethnic minorities, however, this relationship could not be explained by lower meeting opportunities. Preferences for cultural similarity and third-party disapproval did not explain the link between SES and interethnic friendships for any of the two groups.

种族间的接触对于社会凝聚力很重要，并且已经显示出会随着人们的社会经济地位（SES）而变化。有证据表明，SES对非西方少数民族和西方国家多数成员的族裔接触具有相反的影响。具有较高SES的少数族裔成员倾向于与本地人接触更多，而具有较高SES的土著人族裔之间的联系往来较少。为了复制和进一步理解这些相反的发现，我们关注种族间的友谊特别是同时针对多数和少数族裔成员进行的测试是否偏爱文化相似性，结识其他种族的机会以及对第三方的不赞成，是否可以调解SES和具有种族间友谊的关系。对荷兰的368个土著人和267个非西方少数民族的分析表明，SES对这两个群体的族裔友谊产生了截然不同的影响。重要的是，我们发现对于少数族裔成员而言，更高的社会经济地位与通过更多的聚会机会与当地人的更多友谊有关。对于当地人来说，较高的社会经济地位与与少数族裔的友谊减少有关，但是，这种关系不能通过减少见面机会来解释。