dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaCommunity structure and ethnic preferences in school friendship networks
| Authors | M. C. Gonzalez, H. J. Herrmann, J. Kertesz, T. Vicsek |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0611268 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0611268 |
| DOI | 10.1016/j.physa.2007.01.002 |
Abstract
Recently developed concepts and techniques of analyzing complex systems provide new insight into the structure of social networks. Uncovering recurrent preferences and organizational principles in such networks is a key issue to characterize them. We investigate school friendship networks from the Add Health database. Applying threshold analysis, we find that the friendship networks do not form a single connected component through mutual strong nominations within a school, while under weaker conditions such interconnectedness is present. We extract the networks of overlapping communities at the schools (c-networks) and find that they are scale free and disassortative in contrast to the direct friendship networks, which have an exponential degree distribution and are assortative. Based on the network analysis we study the ethnic preferences in friendship selection. The clique percolation method we use reveals that when in minority, the students tend to build more densely interconnected groups of friends. We also find an asymmetry in the behavior of black minorities in a white majority as compared to that of white minorities in a black majority.
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"abstract": "Recently developed concepts and techniques of analyzing complex systems\nprovide new insight into the structure of social networks. Uncovering recurrent\npreferences and organizational principles in such networks is a key issue to\ncharacterize them. We investigate school friendship networks from the Add\nHealth database. Applying threshold analysis, we find that the friendship\nnetworks do not form a single connected component through mutual strong\nnominations within a school, while under weaker conditions such\ninterconnectedness is present. We extract the networks of overlapping\ncommunities at the schools (c-networks) and find that they are scale free and\ndisassortative in contrast to the direct friendship networks, which have an\nexponential degree distribution and are assortative. Based on the network\nanalysis we study the ethnic preferences in friendship selection. The clique\npercolation method we use reveals that when in minority, the students tend to\nbuild more densely interconnected groups of friends. We also find an asymmetry\nin the behavior of black minorities in a white majority as compared to that of\nwhite minorities in a black majority.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0611268",
"authors": [
"M. C. Gonzalez",
"H. J. Herrmann",
"J. Kertesz",
"T. Vicsek"
],
"categories": [
"physics.soc-ph"
],
"doi": "10.1016/j.physa.2007.01.002",
"title": "Community structure and ethnic preferences in school friendship networks",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0611268"
},
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