CONNECTIONS - INSNA

CONNECTIONS
Configurations of Homophily
INTRODUCTION
Folk wisdom tells us that “birds of a feather
flock together” yet, at the same time “opposites
attract.” The contradiction between these
familiar adages points to a fundamental feature
of relationships: their multidimensionality. The
forces that attract and repel people operate in
conjunction along several dimensions
simultaneously. This is evident in Blau’s (1977)
notion of multiform heterogeneity, which
implies that the desire for homophily on some
dimensions can make heterophily on other
dimensions inevitable. Consequently,
individuals within relationships are similar in
many respects, while dissimilar in other aspects:
Male and female birds flock together.
This study moves beyond the unidimensional
treatment of homophily that dominates previous
research by developing a multidimensional
conceptualization. Homophily is characterized
as a combination of similarity and dissimilarity
across several dimensions, referred to as
configurations of homophily. These
configurations can be analyzed to better
understand the interrelations between
dimensions that structure interpersonal
associations. Of particular interest are which
configurations of homophily occur more often
than expected by chance.
Introducing multidimensional homophily
proceeds through two steps. First, I define
relations as configurations of homophily with
the graphical assistance of lattices. Just as
scatterplots are valuable for examining
correlational data, lattices provide a useful
representation of configurational data. I present
a lattice visualization technique that conveys
both the distribution of dyads across homophily
configurations and the logical relationship
between configurations. This tool helps portray
the relationships inherent to combinatorial data
and can assist in the evaluation of such data.
Second, to understand which combinations of
homophily are most salient across relations, I
examine ego network data from the 1985
General Social Survey. I use Qualitative
Comparative Analysis (QCA) to identify the
combinations of similarity and dissimilarity that
underlie the configurations of homophily in
observed dyads. This process uncovers how
dimensions of homophily interact to create more
dyads than expected by chance.
Homophily Research
Social scientists have documented homophily as
one of the most persistent features of human
society (McPherson, Smith-Lovin, & Cook,
2001). Homophily is defined as the tendency for
people to associate with others who are similar,
rather than dissimilar, to themselves.
Homophily is important because of its
implications for the movement of ideas and
people through society. While communication
between similar individuals tends to be more
effective (Rogers & Bhowmik, 1970),
homogeneous networks also tend to constrain
attitudes to be more “closed-minded” (Laumann,
1963) or conservative (Bienenstock, Bonacich,
& Oliver, 1990). Beyond attitudes, the presence
of homophily necessitates that any “cultural,
behavioral, genetic, or material information that
flows through networks will tend to be
localized” (McPherson et al., 2001, p. 416).
Homophily also has consequences for social
mobility to the extent that positions of power
and authority are correlated with ascribed
characteristics of their occupants. For instance,
because women are less likely to occupy
powerful positions within organizations, such
individuals must form strategic, heterophilous
ties that are less efficient in order to gain access
to valuable information and resources (Ibarra
1992). Thus, it is important to understand
homophily as a means of ascertaining the types
of social distance that are least often bridged.
Research has documented the persistence of
homophily in groups and interpersonal
relationships across a wide range of dimensions
(for an overview see McPherson et al., 2001).
Race and ethnic homophily is perhaps the
strongest dimension in the United States and is
observed across most forms of relations.
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