Recent waves of immigration have changed the demographic face of European societies and fueled considerable debate over the consequences of ethnic diversity for social cohesion. One prominent argument in this debate holds that individuals are less willing to extend trust and solidarity across ethnic lines, leading to lower social capital in multiethnic communities. We present a direct test of this proposition in a field experiment involving native-immigrant interactions in Zurich's Central Train Station. Our intervention consists of approaching commuters with a small request for assistance (borrowing a mobile phone), which we take as a measure of prosociality. We further differentiate between reactions towards natives as well as both high- and low-status immigrant groups. Compared to native-native interactions, we find lower solidarity in native-immigrant encounters, especially in cases involving stereotypically low-status immigrants. In exploratory analyses, we further show that discrimination only obtains in 'low cost' situations where commuters could easily justify not helping (e.g. by claiming not to carry a phone). Overall our results shed light on key theoretical mechanisms underlying patterns of solidarity in contemporary multiethnic societies.

中文翻译：

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种族间接触中的亲社会行为：来自高地位和低地位移民的实地实验的证据

最近的移民浪潮改变了欧洲社会的人口面貌，并引发了关于种族多样性对社会凝聚力的后果的激烈辩论。这场辩论中的一个突出论点认为，个人不太愿意跨种族扩展信任和团结，导致多种族社区的社会资本较低。我们在苏黎世中央火车站进行了一项涉及本地移民互动的实地实验，对这一命题进行了直接测试。我们的干预包括向通勤者提出一个小的帮助请求（借用手机），我们将其作为亲社会性的衡量标准。我们进一步区分了对本地人以及高和低地位移民群体的反应。与原生交互相比，我们发现在土著移民遭遇中的团结程度较低，尤其是在涉及陈规定型的低地位移民的情况下。在探索性分析中，我们进一步表明，歧视仅在“低成本”情况下才会出现，在这种情况下，通勤者可以很容易地证明不提供帮助（例如，声称不携带电话）。总的来说，我们的结果揭示了当代多民族社会团结模式背后的关键理论机制。