Why Do Homogeneous Friendships Persist in a Diverse Population? Making Sense of Homophily

Abstract

Homophily is one of the robust findings in social network studies. It persists even in a diverse population where the opportunity to develop homogeneous friendship is not greater than a mere chance and the process of developing heterogeneous friendship is facilitated. In this study, we introduce the Framework for Intergroup Relations and Multiple Affiliations Networks (FIRMAN), derived from social identity theory and social network framework, that can explain why that is the case. We begin by explaining its components: social identity space, social identity distance, length of ties, tie outreachability, and tie capacity. Then, through 7000 agent-based simulations, we demonstrate how the interaction of tie outreachability and tie capacity constraints heterogeneous friendship formations, which in turn make homophily inevitable even in a very diverse population. Surprisingly, the presence of even a small percentage (< 15%) of agents who can only develop homogeneous friendships can affect the whole population, preventing other agents from developing heterogenous friendships. We conclude by providing some directions for future research.

Pronoun Lists in Profile Bios Display Increased Prevalence, Systematic Co-Presence with Other Keywords and Network Tie Clustering among US Twitter Users 2015-2022

“…Further research might be able to recover the weights of each factor on US Twitter users' decisions to include or not include pronoun lists and to form or not form ties with others who do. Theory 1 might be tested experimentally or with agent-based modelling just as racial segregation in tie formation has (Firmansyah & Pratama, 2021;Wimmer & Lewis, 2010). We have demonstrated that other affiliations besides sexual or gender identity co-occur alongside pronoun lists.…”

How Does Facebook Retain Segregated Friendship? An Agent-Based Model Approach

“…Theoretical Framework: Framework for Intergroup Relations and Multiple Affiliations Networks (FIRMAN) FIRMAN (Firmansyah & Pratama, 2021) is a formal theoretical framework in which individuals or agents are represented as nodes (with specified coordinates) and their relationships as ties (with specified lengths) in social identity spaces. A social identity space is an abstract space constituted by n numbers of social identities derived from the groups to which the individuals belong (e.g., gender, ethnicity, and sports clubs).…”

“…With the individuals located in the social identity space, we can easily calculate their social identity distance (w_dist) representing similarity/dissimilarity between any pair of nodes using equation (1), which is derived from Manhattan distance (Black, 2019). Social identity distance differs from Borgadus' social distance that is used to assess individuals' subjective acceptance of outgroup members as alters (Firmansyah & Pratama, 2021).…”

“…This research sought to understand why Facebook, a leading social networking platform that has been initially designed to "bring the world closer together" (Facebook, 2019), retains segregated friendship particularly along ethnic lines. In doing so, this study employed agent-based modeling derived from the Framework for Intergroup Relations and Multiple Affiliations Networks (FIRMAN) introduced by Firmansyah and Pratama (2021). I chose FIRMAN since it simplifies the otherwise very complex process of friendship development in a formal language.…”

“…In this example, w_dist xy = 0 means that nodes x and y are of the same group (e.g., A and C; E and F), while w_dist xy = 1 means otherwise (e.g., B and E; C and F). It is worth noting that the operation Σ and constant w are particularly useful should the numbers of social identities measured in the study be more than two (Firmansyah & Pratama, 2021). As such, they represent that, just as in real life, not all social identities are created equal.…”