A model that explains racial segregation in housing by using the relatively simple decisions that individuals make regarding the choice of neighbours. When individuals of a particular race show even a mild preference to live near others of the same race, it leads to the rise of segregated housing communities on the whole. Thus, deep racial segregation can result even without the deliberate top-down imposition of racial prejudice on a community. The model was first proposed by American economist and Nobel laureate Thomas Schelling in 1971, and later explained by him in the 1978 book Micromotives and Macrobehaviour .
