Neighborhood Experiences and the Influence of Neighborhood Racial Composition in Residential Choice

Benjamin Jarvis, University of California, Los Angeles

This study investigates whether individuals learn neighborhood racial composition preferences based on prior experiences in racially mixed or racially homogeneous neighborhoods. In doing so, this study theorizes a mechanism that could induce, exacerbate, or attenuate within group and between group heterogeneity in these preferences. Neighborhood outcomes are modeled using conditional logistic regression, with individual residential histories from the Los Angeles Family and Neighborhood Survey and neighborhood compositions derived from the US Census serving as data. Models test whether, within black, Latino, and white groups, individuals originating in neighborhoods with different racial mixes use racial composition differently in their subsequent residential choices. Findings show that those who originate in neighborhoods with many Latinos are more likely to move to majority-Latino neighborhoods than those who originate in neighborhoods with few Latinos. This result implies that individuals moderate negative stereotypes of other racial groups in response to between group interaction within neighborhoods.