Homophily and social norms in experimental network formation games
type: Item
instance of: scholarly article
title: Homophily and social norms in experimental network formation games
zbMATH Open document ID: 1419.91148
author: Jasmina Arifovic
author: G. Danese
published in: Games
publication date: 2019-01-21T00:00:00Z
review text: Summary: Field studies of networks have uncovered a preference to befriend people we perceive as similar according to some dimensions of our identity (``homophily''). Lab studies of network formation games have found that adherence to social norms of reciprocity and inequity aversion are also drivers of network choices. No study so far has attempted to investigate the role of both homophily and social norms in a controlled environment. At the beginning of our experiment, each player fills in a personal profile. Each player then views the profile of all other players and expresses a degree of perceived similarity between his/her profile and the profile of the other player. At this point, a repeated network formation game ensues. We find that: (1) potential homophily considerations triggered by the profile rating task did not measurably change the players' behavior compared to the baseline; (2) reciprocity plays a significant role in the formulation of the players' strategies, in particular lowering the probability that the player naively best responds to the network observed in the previous period. We speculate that reciprocation of past choices might be a more ``available'' aid in strategy-formulation than considerations related to the similarity of the other players.
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 91A43
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 91A20
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 91A90
Mathematics Subject Classification ID: 91D30
zbMATH DE Number: 7003976
zbMATH Keywords: networks
zbMATH Keywords: identity
zbMATH Keywords: heterogeneity
zbMATH Keywords: homophily
zbMATH Keywords: reciprocity
zbMATH Keywords: inequity
describes a project that uses: Stata
describes a project that uses: XTOVERID
MaRDI profile type: Publication
full work available at URL: g9040083
OpenAlex ID: W2896348643
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Wikidata QID: Q129002853
DOI: 10.3390/G9040083
description: scientific article; zbMATH DE number 7003976