Tolerating Different Diversities in Canada

for providing the necessary data. 2The effect of ethnic diversity on citizens ’ attitudes and behaviour has received considerable scholarly attention recently. One unresolved debate – characterized by the contact vs. conflict hypotheses – is concerned with the effect of intergroup contact on individuals. Even more unclear, though, are the factors that motivate individuals to initiate contact in the first place. This paper looks at some of the considerations people use when confronted with the potential for contact with persons from a different social group. It intends to shed light on factors that underpin peoples ’ decision to make contact, regardless of the effect contact may eventually have. Using a 2003 Centre for Research and Information on Canada (CRIC) public opinion survey, I seek to explain how the following two considerations influence Canadians ’ preferences for contact with other ethnic groups: 1) the type of target group, that is, whether the target group is categorized by the perceiver as racially or morally different, and 2) the level of intimacy of contact, that is, whether contact is occurring in the less intimate setting of the workplace or school, or in the more intimate setting of the family. Using ordered logit regression,