Road Map to Negative Social Mood: Diversity Destroys Community

Why does negative social mood occur? It isn't because people suddenly decide they've had enough positive mood, it's because like sugar, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. And extreme peaks in social mood will lead to long-term negative trends in expressed behaviors because of the prior positive mood. For example, people are becoming more "xenophobic" as a reaction to peak social mood immigration and integration policies, and even when there is positive mood, it may likely occur as a positive spin on the trend. In other words, instead of negative mood driving a desire to separate, positive social mood will be channeled into positive feelings towards the community which will become increasingly homogeneous.

The Paradox of Diverse Communities

After 20 million-plus simulations, the authors found that the same basic answer kept coming back: The more diverse or integrated a neighborhood is, the less socially cohesive it becomes, while the more homogenous or segregated it is, the more socially cohesive. As they write, “The model suggests that when people form relationships with similar and nearby others, the contexts that offer opportunities to develop a respect for diversity are different from the contexts that foster a sense of community.”

Negative social mood will swing the public onto a new policy track and bouts of negative mood will push it along, but positive move will not reverse it.

The implications are also positive for secession:

If diversity is unattainable at the neighborhood level, might it be possible at the level of the city, as essentially a network of more or less similar neighborhoods? Jane Jacobs liked to say that great cities are federations of neighborhoods. It’s exactly what I see in vibrant cities like New York or Toronto. When I asked Neal about this, he sounded a more optimistic note: “Their patchwork of segregated communities allows for both diversity and cohesion. We usually view segregation as problematic, but when it comes in the form of a patchwork of neighborhoods and enclaves that each have their own character, it may actually ‘work.’”

Diversity is a cost to society. When negative mood hits, people look to cut costs.