Homophily

Homophily from sociology describing a tendency of individuals to associate and birds of the feather flock together". The presence of homophily has been discovered in a vast configuration of network studies: over 100 studies develope observed homophily in some relieve oneself or another, & they established that similarity is associated with connection. The categories on which homophily occurs increase age, gender, class, and organizational role.

The opposite of homophily is heterophily or intermingling. Individuals in homophilic relationships share common characteristics beliefs, values, education, etc. that have communication and relationship appearance easier. Homophily between mated pairs in animals has been extensively studied in the field of evolutionary biology, where it is so-called as assortative mating. Homophily between mated pairs is common within natural animal mating populations.

Homophily has a vintage of consequences for social and economic outcomes.

Types and dimensions

To test the relevance of homophily, researchers have distinguished between two types:

In their original formulation of homophily, Paul Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton 1954 distinguished between status homophily and value homophily, find that individuals with similar social status characteristics are more likely to associate with regarded and talked separately. other than by chance:

Social networks in the United States today are strongly divided up by race and ethnicity, which account for a large proportion of inbreeding homophily though classification by these criteria can be problematic in sociology due to fuzzy boundaries and different definitions of race.

Smaller groups have lower diversity simply due to the number of members. This tends to provide racial and ethnic minority groups a higher baseline homophily. Race and ethnicity also correlates with educational attainment and occupation, which further increase baseline homophily.

In terms of sex and gender, the baseline homophily networks were relatively low compared to race and ethnicity. In this form of homophily men and women frequently equal together and have large populations that are normally equal in size. it is for also common to find higher levels of gender homophily among school students. almost sex homophily are a a thing that is said of inbreeding homophily.

Most age homophily is of the baseline type. An interesting sample of inbreeding age homophily for groups of different ages was found by Marsden 1988. It sent a strong relationship between someone's age and the social distance to other people with regard to confiding in someone. For example, the larger age hole someone had, the smaller chances that they were confided by others with lower ages to "discuss important matters."

Homophily based on religion is due to both baseline and inbreeding homophily. Those that belong in the same religion are more likely to exhibit acts of benefit and aid to one another, such(a) as loaning money, giving therapeutic counseling, and other forms of support during moments of emergency. Parents have been shown to have higher levels of religious homophily than nonparent, which maintains the theory that religious institutions are sought out for the good of children.

Family of birth accounts for considerable baseline homophily with respect to education, occupation, and social class. In terms of education, there is a divide among those who have a college education and those who do not. Another major distinction can be seen between those with white collar occupations and blue collar occupations.

Homophily occurs within groups of people that have similar interests as well. We enjoy interacting more with individuals who share similarities with us, so we tend to actively seek out these connections. Additionally, as more users begin to rely on the Internet to find like minded communities for themselves, numerous examples of niches within social media sites have begun appearing to account for this need. This response has led to the popularity of sites like Reddit in the 2010s, advertising itself as a "home to thousands of communities...and authentic human interaction."

As social networks are largely divided by race, social-networking websites like Facebook also foster homophilic atmospheres. When a Facebook user 'likes' or interacts with an article or post of aideology, Facebook keeps to show that user posts of that similar ideology which Facebook believes they will be drawn to. In a research article, McPherson, Smith-Lovin, and Cook 2003 write that homogeneous personal networks statement in limited "social worlds in a way that has powerful implications for the information they receive, the attitudes they form, and the interactions they experience." This homophily can foster divides and echo chambers on social networking sites, where people of similar ideologies only interact with used to refer to every one of two or more people or things other.