Tolerance in the City: The Multilevel Effects of Urban Environments on Permissive Attitudes

Studies on urbanism often suggest a link between urbanites and increased tolerance. While most research supports this claim, it is hampered by several limitations: it focuses almost exclusively on the United States, it neglects classical arguments that urbanism is a macro-level as well as local phenomena, and it does not direct attention to the different mechanisms through which urbanism is believed to operate. In this paper, we reexamine the tolerance-producing capacity of urbanism by addressing these limitations. This study uses a large cross-national sample, multi-level modeling to examine urban factors at both the local and societal level, and two measures of tolerance to account for the different forms it might take depending on competing conceptualizations. We find that local urban environments promote tolerance cross-nationally and that societal level urbanization is significantly associated with tolerance, but the effect is not always positive. We conclude by discussing the implications of these patterns and their impact on our understanding of urban tolerance