ABSTRACT
Marketplaces worldwide are challenged with how to manage growing racial, ethnic, and cultural diversity. Media fragmentation, family upbringing, and personal choices may limit consumer exposure to diverse cultures and worldviews. Consider the crossover of ethnic films, which expose people to images of lifestyles they may not ordinarily encounter. The movement from "niche" to "mainstream" markets often has implications for financial viability and social inclusion. In this chapter, the author scale development studies found that higher levels of diversity-seeking were associated with past diversity-related activities and a higher likelihood of engaging in future diversity-related behaviors. She explored social and consumption dynamics among long-term and new residents in gentrifying neighborhoods. The author found that new residents are often drawn to these neighborhoods based on a desire to live among diverse others. However, the increased neighborhood diversity did not lead to increased interaction between diverse residents. High diversity seeking consumers behave in ways that are inconsistent with conventional predictions of culture-consistent consumption behaviors.
