• DOI:10.1146/ANNUREV.SOC.27.1.415
• Corpus ID: 2341021

Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks

@article{McPherson2001BirdsOA,
  title={Birds of a Feather: Homophily in Social Networks},
  author={Miller McPherson and Lynn Smith-Lovin and James M. Cook},
  journal={Review of Sociology},
  year={2001},
  volume={27},
  pages={415-444}
}

• M. McPherson, L. Smith-Lovin, J. Cook
• Published 1 August 2001
• Psychology
• Review of Sociology

Similarity breeds connection. This principle—the homophily principle—structures network ties of every type, including marriage, friendship, work, advice, support, information transfer, exchange, comembership, and other types of relationship. The result is that people's personal networks are homogeneous with regard to many sociodemographic, behavioral, and intrapersonal characteristics. Homophily limits people's social worlds in a way that has powerful implications for the information they receive, the attitudes they form, and the interactions they experience. Homophily in race and ethnicity creates the strongest divides in our personal environments, with age, religion, education, occupation, and gender following in roughly that order. Geographic propinquity, families, organizations, and isomorphic positions in social systems all create contexts in which homophilous relations form. Ties between nonsimilar individuals also dissolve at a higher rate, which sets the stage for the formation of niches (localize...