Who is My Neighbor? The Effect of Racial In-Group Representation and Residential Isolation on Volunteering

Do 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 likelihood of volunteering for Blacks increases as residential in-group exposure increases until it is statistically indistinguishable from the likelihood of volunteering for Latinos. Racial in-group representation does not have a statistically significant impact on the likelihood of volunteering for whites and Blacks, but greater in-group representation decreases the likelihood of volunteering for Latinos.