Abstract
Macroscopic behavior of scientific and societal systems results from the aggregation of microscopic behaviors of their constituent elements, but connecting the macroscopic with the microscopic in human behavior has traditionally been difficult. Manifestations of homophily, the notion that individuals tend to interact with others who resemble them, have been observed in many small and intermediate size settings. However, whether this behavior translates to truly macroscopic levels, and what its consequences may be, remains unknown. Here, we use call detail records (CDRs) to examine the population dynamics and manifestations of social and spatial homophily at a macroscopic level among the residents of 23 states of India at the Kumbh Mela, a 3-month-long Hindu festival. We estimate that the festival was attended by 61 million people, making it the largest gathering in the history of humanity. While we find strong overall evidence for both types of homophily for residents of different states, participants from low-representation states show considerably stronger propensity for both social and spatial homophily than those from high-representation states. These manifestations of homophily are amplified on crowded days, such as the peak day of the festival, which we estimate was attended by 25 million people. Our findings confirm that homophily, which here likely arises from social influence, permeates all scales of human behavior.
Highlights
When the behavior of each individual in a group is dependent on their interactions with others around them, the collective behavior of the group as a whole can be surprisingly different from what would be expected by extrapolating off that of the individual [1,2,3]
Summary statistics from the call detail records (CDRs) were provided to us: social network information and daily customer counts at various cell towers located at the Kumbh
While CDRs readily lend themselves to studying social networks and social homophily, to investigate spatial homophily we acquired access to the cell tower IDs at the Kumbh venue
Summary
When the behavior of each individual in a group is dependent on their interactions with others around them, the collective behavior of the group as a whole can be surprisingly different from what would be expected by extrapolating off that of the individual [1,2,3]. In the minority [10], whereas majority members do not share this preference [11]. This phenomenon is in line with the description by Simmel who argued that individuals “resist being leveled” in a crowd [12]. The minority group is too small to form an independent community, it is possible for the minority to show heterophily rather than homophily [13]. This finding highlights the importance of the surrounding social context, in particular the relative size of the group. Social homophily can lead to spatial homophily and thereby give rise to segregation [14, 15]
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