Who trusts whom? The case of immigrant service professionals

ABSTRACT

This study examined the effect of ethnicity on trust relations in day-to-day service encounters with various minority groups. Service encounters were explored in a 2×2 scenario-based, between-subject experimental design. Jewish-Israeli and Arab-Israeli respondents (N = 526) were assigned to four scenarios comprising two customer conditions (national majority/national minority) and two immigrant service professionals’ ethnic origin (Ethiopia/Former Soviet Union). We tested six hypotheses using triple-interaction models. Participants’ general sense of threat from immigrants diminished their trust of immigrant service professionals, a relationship significantly moderated by the immigrants’ ethnic origin. The current study contributes a novel perspective by using threat and support as they relate to immigrants in a service-related context, simulating routine service encounters. The findings expand our understanding of how multicultural relationships impact transactions in the real world of service encounters.

摘要

本研究檢測了移民服務專業人士為各種少數族裔提供日常服務時，種族對信任關係的影響。我們將526位接受測試的猶太裔以色列人和阿拉伯裔以色列人分配到四個場景：由兩種受試者條件（多數民族/少數民族）和兩種移民服務專業人員的種族（衣索比亞人/前蘇聯人）所組成 。然後，我們使用三重交互模型來測試六個假設情況。結果發現：受試者對移民威脅的普遍感覺會降低他們對移民服務專業人士的信任，但移民的族裔起源則顯著緩和了這種信任關係。當前的研究提供了一個新的視角來模擬常規服務環境中與移民相關的威脅和支持。這些研究發現擴展了我們的理解：多元文化關係如何影響現實世界裡的移民服務接觸和交易。

KEYWORDS:

• Service professionals
• attitudes toward immigrants
• customer trust
• ethnic minority

關鍵詞:

• 服務專業人士
• 對移民的態度
• 客戶信任
• 少數族裔

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

We want to acknowledge Ruppin Academic Center for its financial support of the current study.