Browsing by Subject "Homophily"
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Item Open Access Structural Constraints in Intergroup Relations: A Contextual Approach to Polarization and Conflict in Social Networks(2018) Lee, JaeminSocial network analysis is a powerful tool to describe and explain the dynamics of intergroup relations. Research using political and school networks illuminates the micro assortative mechanisms of social ties that directly contribute to the emergence of macro intergroup outcomes such as polarization and conflict. Yet these studies have not fully explored the ecological insights arising from considering how structural constraints—i.e., demographic distributions and emerging meso-group structures—contextualize tie formation, and thereby produce variation in macro intergroup outcomes. This dissertation examines the impact of higher-level constraints on tie formation and intergroup relations in the two contexts: political polarization in America and enmity formation in Adolescence. Studies 1 and 2 ask where the remarkably high level of political homophily comes from and how such relational antecedents affect opinion polarization. Drawing on macrosociological theory of network formation, I use agent-based modeling and the data from the American National Election Surveys to show the pivotal role that sociodemographic consolidation—the correlation between social positions across multiple dimensions—plays in the rise of political homophily in networks and the amplification of the echo chamber effects. Study 3 asks whether racial segregation is directly linked to conflict in schools. Constructing a unified model of friendship and enmity formation on network data collected in a racially diverse middle school, I find that the racial segregation-conflict link is not a direct one but complicated by status-group processes. Racial differences segregate friendships, but conflict is mainly triggered by the status demarcation between members and outsiders of “leading crowds” within racial groups. Combined, these three studies find that the contextual properties—consolidation and groups—condition the rates and effects of micro homophily that shape variation in intergroup conflict. In conclusion, I discuss how my contextual approach contributes to our understanding of intergroup relations in each of the substantive fields of study.
Item Open Access The Duality of Identities and Groups: The Effects of Status Homophily on Social Interactions and Relations(2018) Morgan, Jonathan HowardGender and racial stereotypes are a pervasive aspect of social life arising from the consolidation of resources, statuses, and social roles and identities at the population level. They are widely shared group-level associations that influence how we perceive ourselves and others. Understanding how stereotypes influence the impressions we form about others, however, requires understanding how the association between statuses such as gender or race and the other identities we occupy influences impressions. This dissertation examines this process in three studies. In Studies 1 and 2, I model how people react to events using affect control theory’s impression change methodology. I estimate models using event stimuli collected in 1978 and 2010. I find that stereotypically female and male identities have affective profiles that influence how we form impressions. Affect control theory is best able to explain events involving identities that respondents perceived as associated with both genders. Study 3 analyzes perceptions of aggression among adolescents using longitudinal network data. I find (1) that the association between aggression and race grew as Black friend groups grew more homogeneous, (2) that both Black and White students held racialized status meanings, (3) that within-group similarities and between-group differences with respect to perceptions and behaviors grew over time, and (4) that Blacks were more likely to be identified as aggressive after controlling for self-perceptions of aggressiveness, violent behaviors, and peer perceptions of relational and social aggression. Combined, these studies suggest that the association between cultural meanings of goodness, potency, and aggression and statuses such as gender and race are mediated by identities.