Risky Ties and Taxing Ties: The Multiple Dimensions of Negativity

Abstract

Scholarship on negative social ties typically portrays them as distinct liabilities and optimal candidates for excision from social networks. I argue that this premise is based on a short-sighted understanding of what it means for social ties to be negative. In particular, negativity as a trait of social ties has multiple dimensions, such that ties can be negative in a relatively objective sense (that is, they can pose risk to network egos by virtue of some quality or qualities) with or without being negative in a relatively subjective sense (that is, feeling taxing to egos). To disentangle these two dimensions, I report on a case study of network ties among residents of Sycamore, a leased-housing program for young adults trying to overcome drug addictions. I describe how residents universally understood certain ties—ties to individuals who were addicted to drugs or otherwise had drugs in their possession—as risks to their sobriety, but found only some of those ties taxing. In fact, some risky ties seemed beneficial to residents by displaying nonjudgmental attitudes in the wake of residents’ setbacks, reminding residents of their lowest points, and supplying residents with chances to practice self-restraint and advantageous decision making. The findings show how people can know that certain ties pose risks to their well-being but feel that the ties are good for them. Broadly, the article encourages greater attention to the multidimensional nature of ties’ negativity and highlights the unexpected roles putatively negative ties play in individuals’ lives.