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Where you are, what you want, and what you can do: The role of master statuses, personality traits, and social cognition in shaping ego network size, structure, and composition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2020

Matthew E. Brashears Open the ORCID record for Matthew E. Brashears [Opens in a new window] ,
Laura Aufderheide Brashears  and
Nicolas L. Harder Open the ORCID record for Nicolas L. Harder [Opens in a new window]
Matthew E. Brashears*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC29208, USA (emails: [email protected], [email protected])
Laura Aufderheide Brashears
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC29208, USA (emails: [email protected], [email protected])
Nicolas L. Harder
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC29208, USA (emails: [email protected], [email protected])
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Ego networks are thought to be influenced by the opportunities provided to associate with others given by our master statuses (e.g., race or sex), by the preferences individuals possess for interaction given our personality traits (e.g., extroverted or neurotic), and by the capacity to manage interactions on an ongoing basis given our cognitive ability to recall network information. However, prior research has been unable to examine all three classes of predictors concurrently. We rectify this deficiency in the literature by using a novel dataset of nearly 1000 respondents collected using controlled laboratory designs; using this dataset, we can simultaneously examine the impact of master statuses, personality traits, and social cognitive competencies on ego network size, structure (i.e., density), and composition (i.e., diversity). We find that all classes of predictors influence our ego networks, though in different ways, and point to new avenues for research into human sociability.

Keywords

ego networkscognitionmemorypersonalitymaster statuses
Type
Research Article
Information
Network Science , Volume 8 , Issue 3: Special Issue Ego Networks , September 2020 , pp. 356 - 380
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2020

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Footnotes

Special Issue Editors: Brea L. Perry, Bernice A. Pescosolido, Mario L. Small, and Ann McCranie

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