The Perils of Homophily

Homophily

• In the 1950s, sociologists coined the term “homophily” — love of the same — to explain our inexorable tendency to link up with one another in ways that confirm rather than test our core beliefs. - NYT

“This column will change your life”

• The faintly depressing human tendency to seek out and spend time with those most similar to us is known in social science as "homophily", and it shapes our views, and our lives, in ways we're barely aware of. It explains why, if you know the political positions of a person's friends, you can predict their own with near certainty. - The Guardian

Factors

• Demographics• Shared Experiences

Collaborative Filtering

• A boon for commerce -> recommendations made on the basis of others who made the same purchase (aka people like you).

• These recommendations are less likely to be surprising or challenging

Its Opposite

• The Unsuggester analyzes the 50 million books LibraryThing members have recorded as owned or read and comes back with books least likely to share a library with a specific book.

• http://www.librarything.com/unsuggester

Homophily and News

• Republicans and conservatives are disproportionately likely to seek out news sources that match their own views

• Democrats are more likely to seek out news that either supports their own views or differs from their own views

• Independents and moderates are more likely than partisans to want their news straight

Pew, 2010

Net Result

• Those who prefer “compatible sources” are more likely to say most news sources are biased - Pew, 2010

• 72% - “most are biased in coverage” – Pew, 2010

News Sources

• 78% - Local TV station• 73% - Network/cable TV• 61% - Internet• 54% - Radio• 50% - Newspaper

Pew, 2010

Homophily and Politics

• Infotopia: political deliberation with like-minded people leads to a more, not reduced, politically-polarized stance when compared to viewpoints prior to deliberation.

Ethan Zuckerman

• “If homophily is capable of misleading Americans about local politics, just imagine what we fail to understand about Egypt, Pakistan and Fiji by virtue of not consuming media recommended by people from those places?”

• http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2008/04/25/homophily-serendipity-xenophilia/

Also Affects Governance

• From Visualizing The US Senate Social Graph (1991-2009)

Homophily and Technology

• Even if there were a technological solution, what hope might it have of being adopted?