BIRDS OF A FEATHER: Homophily

  • McPherson M
  • Smith-Lovin L
  • Cook J
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Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. * Abstract Similarity breeds connection. This principle-the homophily princi-ple-structures network ties of every type, including marriage, friendship, work, advice, support, information transfer, exchange, comembership, and other types of re-lationship. The result is that people's personal networks are homogeneous with regard to many sociodemographic, behavioral, and intrapersonal characteristics. Homophily limits people's social worlds in a way that has powerful implications for the infor-mation they receive, the attitudes they form, and the interactions they experience. Homophily in race and ethnicity creates the strongest divides in our personal envi-ronments, with age, religion, education, occupation, and gender following in roughly that order. Geographic propinquity, families, organizations, and isomorphic positions in social systems all create contexts in which homophilous relations form. Ties be-tween nonsimilar individuals also dissolve at a higher rate, which sets the stage for the formation of niches (localized positions) within social space. We argue for more research on: (a) the basic ecological processes that link organizations, associations, cultural communities, social movements, and many other social forms; (b) the impact of multiplex ties on the patterns of homophily; and (c) the dynamics of network change over time through which networks and other social entities co-evolve.

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McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., & Cook, J. (2001). BIRDS OF A FEATHER: Homophily. Annu. Rev. Sociol, 27, 415–444. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/2678628

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