Cultural Integration and Its Discontents

摘要

A community's culture is defined by the preferences and equilibrium behaviours of its members.Contacts among communities alter individual cultures through two interrelated mechanisms:behavioural adaptations driven by pay-offs to coordination,and preference changes shaped by socialization and self-persuasion.This paper explores the workings of these mechanisms through a model of cultural integration in which preferences and behaviours vary continuously.It identifies a broad set of conditions under which cross-cultural contacts promote cultural hybridization.The analysis suggests that policies to support social integration serve to homogenize preferences across communities,thereby undermining a key objective of multiculturalism.Yielding fresh insights into strategies pursued to influence cultural trends,it also shows that communities benefit from having other communities adjust their behaviours.