Underrepresentation of minorities in hollywood films: An agent based modeling approach to explanations

Abstract

This paper proposes an examination of the Hollywood labor system as a network using an agent based model (ABM) that creates a co-actor network within a movie labor market based on preferential attachment and compares the findings with 50 co-production ego networks during the 2015 movie cycle. Using ABM, the tested hypothesis is that slight individual preference for racial and ethnic similarity within one's own network at the microlevel sufficiently explains the phenomena of Hollywood racial minority underrepresentation at the macrolevel. Using regression analysis of the real-world co-actor networks the tested hypothesis is that minority status affects one's position within the network of successful actors. In both cases, the hypotheses are insufficient to explain the phenomena and this paper proposes further exploration into causes of opportunity loss in accessing the labor market merit further study.