Who is my neighbor? The effect of community racial in-group representation and residential isolation on volunteering

ABSTRACTDo individuals residing in racially diverse communities volunteer less than individuals living in homogenous communities? While a growing body of literature explores the relationship between diversity and trust, we know less about how racial diversity affects volunteering. Drawing on the Current Population Survey’s (CPS) volunteering supplement combined with county-level Census data, this article explores how racial diversity moderates the relationship between individual race and volunteering behavior. We find that context moderates the effect of individual race/ethnicity on volunteering. However, these moderating effects differ across racial/ethnic groups. Greater in-group exposure is associated with a decline in volunteering propensity among Blacks, but it does not have a statistically significant impact on whites and Latinos. At the lowest levels of residential exposure/segregation, the likelihood of volunteering for Blacks is statistically indistinguishable from that of whites, but the likelih...