Segregated interactions in urban and online space

Xiaowen Dong,Bruno Lepri,Alfredo J Morales,Yaneer Bar-Yam,Eaman Jahani,Carlos Sarraute,Alex Pentland,Esteban Moro,Burcin Bozkaya

doi:10.1140/epjds/s13688-020-00238-7

Abstract

Urban income segregation is a widespread phenomenon that challenges societies across the globe. Classical studies on segregation have largely focused on the geographic distribution of residential neighborhoods rather than on patterns of social behaviors and interactions. In this study, we analyze segregation in economic and social interactions by observing credit card transactions and Twitter mentions among thousands of individuals in three culturally different metropolitan areas. We show that segregated interaction is amplified relative to the expected effects of geographic segregation in terms of both purchase activity and online communication. Furthermore, we find that segregation increases with difference in socio-economic status but is asymmetric for purchase activity, i.e., the amount of interaction from poorer to wealthier neighborhoods is larger than vice versa. Our results provide novel insights into the understanding of behavioral segregation in human interactions with significant socio-political and economic implications.

Highlights

1 Introduction Residential segregation has historically been associated with societal issues such as economic, educational, and health inequalities [1, 2]; as a consequence, it has been a central focus in social, economic and political sciences [3,4,5]
We demonstrate the consistency in these patterns by examining different cultural and political contexts, in three large metropolitan areas from Europe, Latin America, and North America.a we do not have a direct matching of individuals between the transaction and Twitter data sets, we study behaviors at the collective scale by aggregating the data by urban administrative neighborhoods, for which socio-economic status can be obtained from national census data
3 Discussion In summary, our results suggest that segregated patterns exist in both urban and online interactions between different socio-economic groups, and they seem stronger than that expected from merely the geographic distribution of residential households

Summary

Introduction

Residential segregation has historically been associated with societal issues such as economic, educational, and health inequalities [1, 2]; as a consequence, it has been a central focus in social, economic and political sciences [3,4,5]. According to the Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality, 1% of the American population held 21% of all the income in 2012, which is more than double of what they held in 1970 (8.4%). This change is coupled with a sharp increase in residential segregation by income [10]. In forty years, the number of American families living in middle-income neighborhoods went from 65% down to 43% in large metropolitan areas. Families are increasingly living in either extremely poor or rich neighborhoods, endangering the existence and stability of the middle classes [11]

Methods

Results

Conclusion