Income Distribution and Social Tolerance

Abstract

Social tolerance, i.e. the tolerance for the intrinsic diversity of large social groups, can be viewed as a synergic effect of the features of both individuals and socioeconomic environment. This paper proposes a twofold contribution to the literature. First, it advances a conceptual framework in which tolerance at individual levels is explained by social polarization-in the form of income distribution-and the perceived quality of the social relationships and structures. Second, the regression analysis-involving micro-data from World Values Survey covering a time span between 2010 and 2014, for 48 countries-provides robust evidences for a non-linear impact of income distribution on social tolerance. This impact appears to be U-shaped and displays a pronounced degree of asymmetry. Also, labour market position, education, class self-identification, gender, age, marital status, levels of individuals' personal security and sharing of post-materialist values matter in explaining social tolerance. The same main determinants contribute to the formation of both social tolerance and social capital. The differences are related to the amplitude as well as to the degree of symmetry for the corresponding non-linear transmission channels.

Do Tolerant Societies Demand Better Institutions?

“…Many empirical studies that have studied tolerance have approached this concept from a single item of the opinion polls Elinder 2012a, b, 2015;Corneo and Jeanne 2009;Melgar et al 2015); there are very few papers that have generated indices (Berggren and Nilsson 2013; Das et al 2008;Dima and Dima 2016;Florida and Tinagli 2004). Moreover, these few indices refer to the concept of social tolerance in a broad sense, in that they use different items to include tolerance towards different groups.…”

“…We have specifically considered the percentage of population that makes no mention of "Immigrants/foreign workers" and "people of a different race", respectively. The answers to this question have been extensively used in research on tolerance (Berggren and Elinder 2012a, b;Berggren and Nilsson 2013;Corneo and Jeanne 2009;Das et al 2008;Dima and Dima 2016;Florida and Tinagli 2004;Inglehart et al 2008).…”

“…However, there are studies that exploit the WVS/EVS. In general, they analyse each item of the survey independently Elinder 2012a, b, 2015;Corneo and Jeanne 2009;Melgar et al 2015) while a few studies have built a broader index of tolerance (Berggren and Nilsson 2013;Das et al 2008;Dima and Dima 2016;Florida and Tinagli 2004).…”

A Model of Sustainable Consumer Behaviour, Personal Development, and Attitudes Toward Marketing

“…High tolerance in individuals helps them cope with anger (Ellis, et al, 2010), be more effective in risky situations (Filbeck, et al, 2005), have more successful and longer marriages (Light and Ahn, 2010), and contributes to the ruggedness of an individual (Weber, 2003). High levels of tolerance also help people operate effectively in a multicultural environment (Chevrier 2003;Dima and Dima, 2016;Korol, 2017;Oyamot, et al, 2017). High tolerance even increases the chances of students who have dropped out of college return to school (Park, 2011) and it helps college students be receptive of new classroom technologies (Lowe, et al, 2013).…”

Political tolerance in Canada: Are religious Canadians and Americans more intolerant?

“…33Data available at http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSDocumentationWV5.jsp. See also Spierings 2019; Dima and Dima 2016; Mulligan et al. 2014.…”