Prejudice and White Majority Welfare Attitudes in the UK

This paper proposes two possible mechanisms that could generate the alleged negative effect of diversity upon welfare support. The correlations these mechanisms would generate are then examined using regression analysis on British Social Attitudes data. Prejudice is found to have significant and robust effects on white attitudes towards the welfare state, supporting one part of an “indirect” diversity effect. Local ethnic diversity at the council level does not, however, have any significant effect on welfare attitudes. The argument for a “direct” diversity effect is not supported by the data.