The sources of individual tolerance towards different social groups have been subject of many empirical studies. But, these analyses have been considering two levels at best, for example by considering individual attitudes and the affiliation to a country. Here, this paper goes a step further and applies a three levels approach. Database is the World Value Survey of 1999; the sub sample comprises about 18,000 respondents from 16 European countries and 147 European regions. Dependent variable is an index constructed from the attitudes toward such different social groups as immigrants, communists, right-wing extremists, and others.

It is shown that there work contrary processes at the regional and the national level: As expected, national prosperity raises the individual tolerance. But, regional prosperity lowers it. Possible explanations are that regions with a high average occupational status attract social minorities and that this in-flow results in higher competition in terms of group threat. Another explanation can be that these regions are highly competitive in terms of internal rivalry and that this pressure results in a lower level of tolerance independently of the presence of social minorities.