Racial Homophily Research Articles

Friendship Homophily Trajectories among Asian American Youth from High School to College.

Friendship racial homophily, the tendency to form friendships with individuals who share the same racial background, is a normative developmental phenomenon that holds particular significance for youth of color in a racialized society. Yet, there exists a paucity of longitudinal research elucidating the stability and change of friendship racial composition across developmental span. This study aimed to examine the friendship racial homophily trajectories over a six-year period encompassing four time points. The sample comprised 437 Asian American youth (MAge = 16.52, SDAge = 1.36, 53% female), with 197 Filipino and 240 Korean participants. Using logistic multilevel modeling analyses, it was found that both Filipino and Korean American youth demonstrated an increase in friendship racial homophily from high school to college, but that Filipino youth overall reported lower levels of racial homophily compared to their Korean counterparts. The study findings also pinpointed several influential factors impacting these trajectories, including proficiency in heritage languages, ethnic identity, and encounters with racial discrimination from both White Americans and other People of Color. These results highlight the continuous evolution of friendship racial composition from high school to college and emphasize the crucial role of ethnic identity and experiences of discrimination in influencing these dynamics, with ethnic identity exerting more enduring effects and experiences of discrimination showing more situational impacts on the levels of racial homophily.

Social Network Characteristics Associated with More Frequent HIV and STI Prevention Conversations: The N2 Cohort Study in Chicago.

Black cisgender sexually minoritized men (SMM) and transgender women (TW) are subgroups at highest risk of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) in the US. We sought to identify factors facilitating continued conversations - social reinforcement - surrounding HIV/STI prevention among this subgroup. Participants were recruited in Chicago from 2018 to 2019 from community health spaces. Participants provided information about themselves (level 2) and ⩽5 confidants (level 1). We used multinomial multilevel modeling to identify associations with HIV/STI prevention conversation frequency. A total of 370 participants provided information on 987 confidants (mean = 2.6). We found significantly positive associations between having biweekly or more often HIV/STI prevention conversations and a confidant being a kin family member, older by 15 years or more, racially homophilous, and emotionally close. Future interventions should harness social networks by including components that consider racial homophily, respect for elders, and strong ties, in addition to applying kin family systems interventions approaches and decreasing stigma surrounding HIV/STIs.

The role of anthropomorphism and racial homophily of virtual influencers in encouraging low‐ versus high‐cost pro‐environmental behaviors

AbstractVirtual influencers have great potential to shape the audience's perception and motivate behavioral change. Drawing upon anthropomorphism theory and social identity theory, this paper examined the interaction effect of anthropomorphism and racial homophily of virtual influencers in shaping audiences' trust and subsequently pro‐environmental behaviors in low‐ and high‐cost contexts. Two online studies employing experimental materials generated by artificial intelligence were conducted. Study 1 revealed that high anthropomorphism (human‐like virtual influencers) and high racial homophily (local‐like virtual influencers) are more effective for eliciting trust in the context of low‐cost pro‐environmental behaviors. The findings also showed that low racial homophily (foreign‐like virtual influencers) would further weaken the trust level of a virtual influencer in low anthropomorphism (animate‐like virtual influencers). Study 2 aimed to replicate the findings from Study 1 in the context of high‐cost pro‐environmental behaviors. The findings showed that low racial homophily (foreign‐like virtual influencers) enhanced the trust in a high anthropomorphism (human‐like virtual influencers) virtual influencer. The moderated mediation analyses confirmed the hypothesized relationships in the proposed research model. This research advanced our understanding on the moderating role of racial homophily that serves as a cognitive shortcut for low‐cost and quick decisions. However, a low racial homophily (foreign‐like) virtual influencer would be more effective for high‐cost and symbolic pro‐environmental behaviors. These insights provide valuable guidance to businesses, marketers, and environmental advocates aiming to leverage virtual influencers for encouraging sustainability practices.

Thinking you're different matters more for belonging than being different.

Belonging to a community is essential for wellbeing, but potentially unattainable for those dissimilar from a group. In the present work, we ask whether belongingness is better predicted by acting and thinking like peers or believing you act and think like peers. Students (N = 1181) reported their belonging and how much they, their friends, and an "average student" endorsed local behavioral norms and general values. We calculated difference scores for behaviors and values capturing perceived similarity to the average, actual similarity to the average, and accuracy around the norm. Key results indicate that perceived behavioral similarity to the average, when controlling for other differences, predicts belonging and most robustly mediates between identity and belonging. Using social network analysis, we find behavioral differences from friends are meaningfully linked to network density and racial homophily. Efficient interventions for enhanced belonging could highlight similarities between students and their peers.

“Defriending” in a polarized age: Political and racial homophily and tie dissolution

Given increased political polarization and racial tension in the wake of the 2016 presidential election in the United States, this study examines dropped ties in personal networks at that time based on political and racial identities. We employed data from the 2015–2018 UCNets study (n = 1159), a longitudinal, representative data set of the San Francisco Bay Area. In late 2015 and early 2016 it generated personal network data via multiple name generators, eliciting alters whom respondents socialized with, confided in, received advice from, exchanged social support with, and found difficult. Using multilevel multinomial logit models, we then examined various reasons for tie dissolution immediately following the inauguration of Trump in early 2017. The results show that among young adults, politically dissimilar alters were more likely to be dropped due to disagreements. With respect to racial homophily, we found that interracial dyads were more likely to be dropped because of drifting apart or some other reason for both younger and older cohorts. Overall, there is some support for the notion that dropped ties due to political disagreements did occur immediately following the 2016 election, but the results highlight the continuing significance of race in personal networks.

Objectification and racial homophily among Black men who have sex with men logged on to Grindr

Black men who have sex with men (MSM) are disproportionately impacted by HIV infection. Evidence suggests that the racial disparity in HIV incidence among MSM may be due, in part, to high rates of racial homophily (i.e., same-race partnering) within the sexual networks of Black MSM. Among subpopulations with high HIV prevalence, such as Black MSM, homophily facilitates the formation of relatively closed networks and thus efficient disease propagation. Structural racism, including residential and occupational segregation, is a major contributor to racial homophily, but less is known about the interpersonal dynamics that may drive patterns of sexual partner selection within people's local contexts. The current study tested one hypothesis that objectification by non-Black men may lead to increased rates of same-race partnering for Black MSM. Specifically, in a vignette-style experiment, Black MSM (N = 199; Mage = 31.6) were recruited from Grindr, a geosocial networking application that connects people with physically-proximate users, and were exposed to a sexually-objectifying Grindr user. Compared to when an objectifying partner was Black, White Partner Race led participants to endorse less likelihood of engagement, an effect transmitted through its intermediate impact on state self-objectification. Critically, participants in this sample reported moderate rates of same-race partnering from Grindr (approximately 40% of past-year Grindr partners were also Black), and this mechanism was observed only among those Black MSM reporting the highest rates (i.e., 84th percentile of past-year Grindr homophily). Results suggest that objectification does not cause racial homophily, but it may interact with people's local contexts to reinforce existing racial homophily within the sexual networks of Black MSM. Implications for both HIV prevention and future research are discussed.

LINKS BETWEEN SOCIAL CONNECTEDNESS AND COGNITIVE HEALTH OPERATE THROUGH SOCIAL STIMULATION AND COGNITIVE RESERVE

Abstract The link between social connectedness and dementia risk and resilience has been examined using a diverse set of measures. Though different measures of connectedness reflect distinct social processes and underlying mechanisms (e.g., stress buffering, cognitive stimulation), few studies have compared them. Using data from two social network studies of older adults (N=283), we compare associations between 29 measures of social connectedness and general cognitive function (MoCA), and non-verbal (Rey) and episodic memory (Craft). Measures of social participation (e.g., volunteering, working, attending church) and social support were unassociated with cognitive outcomes, net of controls. Quality of friendships (p<.05), family relationships (p<.01), and marriage (p<.05) were sporadically associated. Measures indicating large, diverse, and expansive networks were strongly and consistently related to all cognitive outcomes (e.g., number of phone contacts [p<.001], network size [p<.001], density [p<.001], racial homophily [p<.05], age heterogeneity [p<0.01], and diversity [p<.001]). We discuss implications for theories of cognitive reserve.

Strong and weak tie homophily in adolescent friendship networks: An analysis of same-race and same-gender ties.

While we know that adolescents tend to befriend peers who share their race and gender, it is unclear whether patterns of homophily vary according to the strength, intimacy, or connectedness of these relationships. By applying valued exponential random graph models to a sample of 153 adolescent friendship networks, I test whether tendencies towards same-race and same-gender friendships differ for strong versus weak relational ties. In nondiverse, primarily white networks, weak ties are more likely to connect same-race peers, while racial homophily is not associated with the formation of stronger friendships. As racial diversity increases, however, strong ties become more likely to connect same-race peers, while weaker bonds are less apt to be defined by racial homophily. Gender homophily defines the patterns of all friendship ties, but these tendencies are more pronounced for weaker connections. My results highlight the empirical value of considering tie strength when examining social processes in adolescent networks.

Intergenerational Transmission of Organizational Misconduct: Evidence from the Chicago Police Dept

This paper investigates how organizational misconduct is perpetuated through intergenerational transmission. We theorize that early exposure to misconduct imprints newcomers with the belief that misconduct is normal, which is then carried by these individuals into managerial positions and passed down to future generations of subordinates. We test this using longitudinal administrative data from the Chicago Police Department from 1980–2017. We exploit the random assignment of applicants to training cohorts to demonstrate that applicants exposed to higher levels of misconduct during their initial training not only engage in more misconduct over their careers (first generation effect), but also increase the misconduct of their subordinates after they become managers years or decades later (second generation effect). Mechanism tests suggest that this intergenerational transmission occurs through both incentive structures (i.e., annual reviews) and social influence (i.e., racial homophily). Taken together, these findings reveal how managers carry the normalization of misconduct from an organization’s past into its future, expanding our understanding of how misconduct in organizations is perpetuated and offering important policy implications for addressing the problem of police misconduct.

Who has different-race friends, and does it depend on context? Openness (to other), but not agreeableness, predicts lower racial homophily in friendship networks.

People form relationships with people from their own racial groups, a phenomenon called racial homophily, which reduces interracial contact and exacerbates inequality and prejudice. Although viewed as arising from environmental factors, we argue that racial homophily also involves individual choice and, thus, personality factors. We address three major issues. First, are interpersonal concerns (Agreeableness) and intergroup concerns (Openness) differentially relevant to cross-race friendships? Second, are current conceptions of Openness sufficient, or do we need lower-level facets more attuned to intergroup concerns? Third, can we specify the interplay between personality and contextual factors in different settings? Across four studies (total N = 1,820), Agreeableness failed to predict more cross-race friendships, in both self- and peer reports, suggesting that interpersonal kindness was not sufficient to overcome racial homophily. In contrast, Openness and Openness to Other (O2, a new social facet of Openness) consistently predicted cross-race friendship. However, the O2 facet had the stronger and only unique effect, suggesting it is the "active ingredient." High-O2 individuals had an almost equal 1:1 ratio of same-to-different-race network members, whereas low-O2 individuals had 4:1 same-race. These results held for both college students and middle-aged adults, both friends and new acquaintances in the network, and both networks established before and at a diverse university. Finally, when moving to a more diverse environment, high-O2 individuals seemed to take advantage of the new environmental affordances, adding more different-race members to their networks. Overall, these studies advance understanding of person-environment transactions, showing how personality traits matter to the structure of people's social networks. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

The Association Between Social and Spatial Closeness With PrEP Conversations Among Latino Men Who Have Sex With Men.

US Latino men who have sex with men (LMSM) are a group at highest risk for HIV. One driver of HIV among LMSM is inadequate access to pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) information. The social network theory of homophily suggests that sharing similar sociodemographic factors could influence PrEP conversations within networks. This study aimed to determine how the effects of homophily across sociodemographic, immigration, cultural, and PrEP-related factors are associated with PrEP-related communication. This study was conducted in Miami-Dade County, FL. Data collected between August 2018 and October 2019 included 10 sociocentric friendship groups of 13 LMSM (N = 130). Participants were recruited using respondent-driven sampling by a community-based organization in Miami. We used the multiple regression quadratic assignment procedure to identify the effects of homophily and relationship characteristics on PrEP-related conversations using R software. More frequent PrEP-related conversations were associated with dyadic friendships characterized by homophily on knowledge of PrEP effectiveness, heterophily on depressive symptom severity, home addresses proximity, friend closeness, and interaction frequency. Past PrEP-related conversation frequency also increased based on heterophily on the Latino cultural value of familism (ie, emotional support to family). Racial homophily, heterophily on severity of depressive symptoms, home addresses proximity, friendship closeness, and frequency of interactions increased likelihood to encourage a friend to use PrEP. Social and spatial closeness and homophily play a role in PrEP-related conversations. Information from social networks contextualized in geographic settings can be elucidated to contribute toward the design of novel opportunities to end HIV.

Homophily and Social Capital in a Network of Religious Congregations

This article investigates the relationship between homophily, the tendency for relationships to be more common among similar actors, and social capital in a social network of religious congregations from eight counties encompassing and surrounding a major metropolitan area in the southeastern United States. This network is inter-congregational, consisting of congregations and the relationships between them. Two types of social capital are investigated: the first involves the extent to which congregations bridge across structural holes, or bridge together otherwise disconnected congregations within the network; secondly, network closure involves the extent to which congregations are embedded in tight-knit clusters. Analyses use two types of homophily (religious and racial) to predict both outcomes, and they test linear and curvilinear relationships between both forms of homophily and the outcomes. Results indicate that congregations with moderate levels of religious homophily are more likely to bridge between otherwise disconnected congregations; however, congregations with low or high religious homophily as well as congregations with high racial homophily are more likely to be embedded in tight-knit relational clusters. This article contributes additional social network research on congregations and evidence of curvilinear relationships between homophily and social capital to the fields of social network analysis and sociology of religion.

A Structural Model of Homophily and Clustering in Social Networks

I develop and estimate a structural model of network formation with heterogeneous players and latent community structure, whose equilibrium homophily and clustering levels match those usually observed in real-world social networks. Players belong to communities unobserved by the econometrician and have community-specific payoffs, allowing preferences to have a bias for similar people. Players meet sequentially and decide whether to form bilateral links, after receiving a random matching shock. The model converges to a hierarchical exponential family random graph. Using school friendship network data from Add Health, I estimate the posterior distribution of parameters and unobserved heterogeneity, detecting high levels of racial homophily and payoff heterogeneity across communities. The posterior predictions of sufficient statistics show that the model is able to replicate the homophily levels and the aggregate clustering of the observed network, in contrast with standard exponential family network models without community structure.

Political Voice and (Mortgage) Market Participation: Evidence from Minority Disenfranchisement

This paper documents the link between political voice and economic decision-making. Combining the repeal of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act as a shock to the enfranchisement of black Americans with granular data on the US mortgage market, we document a 14% decline in mortgage origination for black Americans. This is driven by their self-selection out of the mortgage market rather than a change in denial rate. Additionally, we observe a flight of black demand to black lenders, indicating an increase in racial homophily. Our results indicate that disenfranchisement reduces demand directly by increasing uncertainty, violence, and borrowing constraints and indirectly by increasing the threat of rejection.

Equilibrium homophily in networks

I look at the equilibrium effects of homophily in network formation games having positive externalities. I show that very weak preferences for network effects (such as a preference for being part of a clique) may result in very high levels of homophily at equilibrium. I present an empirical procedure that allows an evaluation of the role of network effects on the observed level of homophily in the data. I apply my method to the formation of friendship networks in the USA. I show that network effects are small and have a negligible contribution to the observed racial homophily in friendship networks.

To Promote or Hire? How Racial Processes and Organizational Characteristics Affect Internal Promotions in NCAA Division I College Basketball Coaching

AbstractWe use data from 2008–2013 on the universe of internal promotion opportunities in the labor market of NCAA Division I men's college basketball coaching to examine how race and racial homophily affect the likelihood of internal promotion. We run probit regression analyses from the individual and organizational perspective, offering a robust test of six hypotheses. In line with the relational inequality perspective, we find that the racial match of assistants and head coaches explains discrepancies in internal promotion, with homogeneous white pairings seeing significantly increased odds compared to other racial combinations. In addition, our findings reveal that colleges and universities are more likely to promote internally as the racial composition of the staff more closely matches the race of the outgoing head coach, thereby underscoring how racial processes inform the micro-level interactions that shape organizational behavior.

The Effect of Social Networks and Social Constructions on HIV Risk Perceptions

Roughly 1 in 7 people living with HIV in the United States is unaware of their sero-status, signaling that individuals may be underestimating theirrisk forHIV.Few studies have examined the effect of socio-structural and socio-cognitive factors onHIV risk perceptions. This analysis identifies individual, interpersonal and network influences on HIV risk perceptions among high-risk heterosexuals. Data come from the Colorado Springs study, a CDC-funded project focused on HIV transmission among high-risk heterosexuals.Using social network data, analyses were first conducted at the individual-level using a partial proportional odds regression to identify predictors of self-perceived HIV risk. Next, multivariate binary logistic regression using GEE was used to examine predictors of perceptions of network member's HIV risk. Interpersonal characteristics such as perceptions of network member'sHIV risk, racial homophily, and engagement in multiplexity (co-occurrence of drug-use, needle sharing and sex within relationships) were significantly associated with respondents' self-perceived HIV risk. Factors associated with perceptions of network member'sHIV risk include self-perceived HIV risk, emotional closeness within relationships, and density of drug ties. Analyses found HIV risk perception is the product of not only individual-level factors, but also interpersonal and social network processes. We also found a reciprocal relationship between individuals' perceptions of their own risk and the risk of their associates/network members. Findings highlightthe need for understanding risk perception as a function of interpersonal relationships, social constructions, including socio-cognitive processes.

Evaluating peer-influence processes in a prison-based therapeutic community: a dynamic network approach

BackgroundThe Therapeutic Community (TC) is a common treatment modality for incarcerated individuals with substance use disorders. TCs rely on peer group processes to promote lasting behavioral and identity change, yet prior research has not adequately tested the peer influence mechanisms underlying the theoretical model. This study applied dynamic network analysis to estimate peer influence processes central to TC philosophy. MethodsA stochastic actor-oriented model (SAOM) was applied to ten months of social network data collected from prisoner surveys within a TC unit (N = 62) in a medium-security Pennsylvania prison. Respondents (N = 177, 84% of unit) completed at least one prison survey and provided network and community role model nominations. ResultsAlthough residents’ levels of treatment engagement were significantly correlated with their nominated peers, estimates of peer influence for treatment engagement were non-significant in longitudinal network models. Nor were estimates of peer influence significantly greater for peers perceived as community role models. Rather, inmates connected with peers who were of similar treatment engagement as themselves (i.e., a peer selection process), and the latter primarily resulted from racial homophily in the TC social network. ConclusionsInconsistent with the desired treatment model, treatment engagement diffusion was not evident in the sampled TC. Results suggested that highly-engaged residents clustered together at the center of the TC’s social structure but had little impact on less-engaged and peripheral inmates. The relatively short (i.e., four-month) program length and moderate-to-low treatment fidelity likely contributed to the lack of peer influence processes.

Friend Not Foe? Reconsidering Race, the Police, and Community Relations

Given the complicated historical and contemporary relationship between law enforcement and African Americans, academic and popular commentary have focused intently on the existence of conflict between the police and the Black citizenry in the United States. The current project, however, seeks to broaden understanding in this area by exploring the extent to which African Americans know the police in positive, informal ways. Based on a 2017 national-level survey of 1,000 African Americans, this project explores the extent of survey participants’ association with police officers as well as potential predictors of those relationships. Specifically, binary logistic regression is used to analyze the relationship between the survey respondents’ social bonds, demographic characteristics, and their relationships with police officers. The analyses reveal that respondents’ ties to the police were common, with nearly one in four having a police officer as a family member and a majority having some relationship with officers. Those with stakes in conformity were more likely to have bonds to officers, although racial homophily likely also accounts for knowing police officers. Importantly, this project demonstrates the complexity of African Americans’ relationships with the police and identifies further lines of inquiry that might profitably be explored.

Sources of Friendship and Structurally Induced Homophily across the Life Course

How people meet new friends changes throughout life in ways that change the potential for diverse friendships. This study presents results from the first U.S. survey with data on how respondents met their friends, specifically the two nonfamily friends they most often socialize with. The most common sources of new friendships shift across life from the dominance of schooling during youth, to the centrality of work in midlife, to neighbors and voluntary groups in later life. Educational homophily peaks for friendships made in midlife, and is strongest for friendships made in higher education and at work. Racial homophily generally declines as people age but is lowest for men in midlife, while decreasing later for women. Friendship sources largely account for life course changes in racial homophily, but not educational homophily. The racial homophily induced by friendship sources also changes as people age, but in different ways for women and men.