engleski

The influence of social composition on residential preference and social status threat

The presented study integrates the concepts of social identity threat and studies on residential preference to look at how the effect of socio-economic composition of the immediate neighbourhood on residential preference is moderated by social composition of the wider area in which the given neighbourhood is located. Moreover, we analysed whether the relationship between the social composition of the wider area and the preference to live in a given neighbourhood was mediated by threat to social status. Our analyses are based on a 3x3 experimental study conducted among 140 participants (students at the University of Zagreb). Participants were shown an abstract urban area in which houses of poor and rich people were distinguished. Each of the three experimental groups received a map with different proportions of poor and rich residents. Moreover, three points on each map varying in the composition of the immediate neighbourhood were indicated. Participants were asked to assess each of the three locations as regards their preference to live there, and their perceived threat to social status. Control variables included prejudice towards poor people, weak and strong intergroup ties and socio-demographic characteristics of the respondent. The results show that the preference to live in a rich neighbourhood depended on the composition of the wider area: the higher the proportion of rich people in the wider area, the stronger the preference to live among rich neighbours. A mediation effect by social status threat was found only for the rich neighbourhood and not for the two other neighbourhoods.

residential preference; social composition; social status; social status threat; neighborhood

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