We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
from Part III - Applications
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 July 2014
Social forces connect individuals in different ways. When individuals get connected, one can observe distinguishable patterns in their connectivity networks. One such pattern is assortativity, also known as social similarity. In networks with assortativity, similar nodes are connected to one another more often than dissimilar nodes. For instance, in social networks, a high similarity between friends is observed. This similarity is exhibited by similar behavior, similar interests, similar activities, and shared attributes such as language, among others. In other words, friendship networks are assortative. Investigating assortativity patterns that individuals exhibit on social media helps one better understand user interactions. Assortativity is the most commonly observed pattern among linked individuals. This chapter discusses assortativity along with principal factors that result in assortative networks.
Many social forces induce assortative networks. Three common forces are influence, homophily, and confounding. Influence is the process by which an individual (the influential) affects another individual such that the influenced individual becomes more similar to the influential figure. Homophily is observed in already similar individuals. It is realized when similar individuals become friends due to their high similarity. Confounding is the environment's effect on making individuals similar. For instance, individuals who live in Russia speak Russian fluently because of the environment and are therefore similar in language. The confounding force is an external factor that is independent of inter-individual interactions and is therefore not discussed further.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
