Trust, Cooperation, and Collective Action in Diverse Communities

To understand the relationship between democracy and trust, we need to understand the diversity of the people and communities in democratic societies. The “Trust, Cooperation and Collective Action in Diverse Communities” project uses innovative experimental methods and original data collection to complicate and deepen our understanding of trust and cooperation in diverse communities.

This project has three parts. It aims, first, to clarify the meaning of diversity, examining how people from different racial/ethnic backgrounds define diversity and distinguishing the concept of heterogeneity from the share of non-Whites in a community. Second, it uses incentivized experiments to study how people learn from past cross-racial interactions and become trusting toward strangers from different racial/ethnic backgrounds. Third, it studies urban neighborhoods where diversity “works,” i.e., where neighbors have repeatedly organized to achieve common goals, despite racial/ethnic differences between them. The third part of the project uses surveys and incentivized experiments to uncover the mechanisms––like communication and sanctioning––that successfully promote trust and cooperation between people from different backgrounds. The findings will provide insights useful for formulating and implementing policies on issues like affirmative action, immigration, and residential integration.

Led by Columbia sociology professor Maria Abascal, the project will also create a research practicum for advanced undergraduate students and graduate students on the topic of experimental research methods and expand the ongoing Experimental Design Workshop, which brings together experimental social scientists from across the Columbia community to exchange ideas and receive feedback on original research.

Project moved to New York University