Similarity breeds connection. This principle—the homophily principle—structures network
ties of every type, including marriage, friendship, work, advice, support, information transfer, …

Recent work on the organized sources of network ties and on the social structural determinants
of association are synthesized to produce several hypotheses about homophily. These …

We review three traditions in research on identity. The first two traditions, which stress (a) the
internalization of social positions and their meanings as part of the self structure and (b) the …

We practice personal network analysis every day. Each of us is the center of our own universe.
We know who our friends are, how they are connected to each other, and what kinds of …

Have the core discussion networks of Americans changed in the past two decades? In 1985,
the General Social Survey (GSS) collected the first nationally representative data on the …

Conversations both reflect and maintain social inequalities. They import hierarchical
structures from larger society and help perpetuate them by creating inequalities in the ability to …

▪ Abstract The gender system includes processes that both define males and females as
different in socially significant ways and justify inequality on the basis of that difference. Gender …

This paper explores some network consequences of dramatic differences between men and
women in the typical size of the voluntary organizations they belong to.These size …

Homophily, the tendency for similar actors to be connected at a higher rate than dissimilar
actors, is a pervasive social fact. In this article, we examine changes over a 20-year period in …

Humor is a quintessentially social phenomenon, since every joke requires both a teller and
an audience. Here we ask how humor operates in task-oriented group discussions. We use …