Social Status and Negative Tie Formation

Abstract

Despite the importance of both positive and negative ties in the foundational social network theories, the role of negative ties in network dynamics remains under-examined in modern social network scholarship. Labianca and Brass's (2006) article was one of the landmark efforts to build theory about the dynamics of negative ties in social network processes. Labianca and Brass highlight social status as a factor likely to be important in the formation of negative ties. Specifically, they propose that social status affects the likelihood of receiving a negative tie - higher status individuals are less likely to receive negative ties, and lower status individuals are more likely. Other related network theories offer differing perspectives regarding the role of social status in negative tie formation. Building from these theories, we develop a set of competing hypotheses about the role of status in the formation of negative ties. Using an original dataset, we test these competing hypotheses. In support of Labi...