Role of tolerance in communication with diverse people

This paper investigates the role of tolerance in urban communication. In doing so, it presents a model with $$N+1$$ N + 1 individuals who communicate with each other. The model explains that individuals can be tolerant and obtain a valuable outcome if their communication partners are also tolerant enough to make their communication smooth. Consequently, when individuals are sufficiently differentiated and have frequent opportunities to communicate, there exist multiple equilibria in which all individuals could be either tolerant or intolerant. That is, individuals remain less tolerant as long as their communication partner’s tolerance remains at very low level. However, when their communication partners are initially tolerant enough, they can achieve a substantial outcome in communication. This phase can be interpreted as meaning that the individual has exercised intercultural competence. Copyright Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2016