This book is about ethnic diversity in voluntary organizations and seeks to explain whether
intergroup contact contributes to the development of generalized trust. It relies on a novel
multilevel design and data from Amsterdam in which 40 voluntary organizations and 463
participants have been sampled. Contrary to conventional wisdom this book argues that
cognitive processes are contributing more toward the evaluation of strangers or generalized
trust than interethnic contact. Since trusting unknown people is essentially a risky endeavor
this suggests that participants of both association types who report trusting strangers can
afford to do so because they are better educated have a more positive worldview and have had
fewer negative life experiences. That is to say they are socially more successful and view
their future as more promising. Previous findings are inconclusive since most studies that
conclude diversity has led to less generalized trust do not include interethnic contact
directly in their analyses. These studies also downplay the importance of cognitive processes
which may shape generalized trust. What is more people join ethnically diverse civic groups
because they already have more trustful attitudes rather than learning to trust through
interethnic contact. Despite the recent multiculturalist backlash this book demonstrates that
participation in ethno-national organizations does not pose a threat to social cohesion. The
analysis in this book serves to build a general theory of trust that moves beyond emphasizing
interaction between people who are different from each other but one that includes the
importance of cognition.
