Trust thy neighbour?

Reading the Financial Times (as one does!) I saw that Harvard University’s Robert Putnam, one of the world’s most influential political scientists has published new research which shows that the more diverse a community is, the less likely its inhabitants are to trust anyone . This is a contentious finding in the current climate of concern about the benefits of immigration. Professor Putnam said he had delayed publishing until he could develop proposals to compensate for the negative effects of diversity, saying it “would have been irresponsible to publish without that”.

The drive of the research was that, “in the presence of diversity, we hunker down”, he said. “We act like turtles. The effect of diversity is worse than had been imagined. And it’s not just that we don’t trust people who are not like us. In diverse communities, we don’t trust people who do look like us.” He considers that his conclusions have validity in Europe also.

I rather welcome ethnic diversity, so long as it is legal and controlled. I totally oppose multiculturalism I deem as evil.