Homophily and the Persistence of Disagreement

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Melguizo, Isabel
• 署名单位: Universidad Iberoamericana Ciudad de Mexico; Centro de Investigacion y Docencia Economicas A.C. (CIDE)
• 刊物名称: ECONOMIC JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0013-0133
• DOI: 10.1111/ecoj.12603
• 发表日期: 2019
• 页码: 1400-1424
• 关键词: persuasion bias; opinion dynamics; social-influence; SALIENCE; friendship; IDENTITY; segregation; integration; COMPETITION; wisdom

摘要

This article studies the persistence of disagreement using a dynamic model in which individuals update their attitudes by averaging those of others with whom they relate. Individuals establish homophilous relations and thus favour others with similar (dichotomous) attributes. Attributes determine the intensity of relations to the extent to which there is a substantial difference in attitudes between the two groups of individuals possessing and lacking them. The main finding is that disagreement, which materialises in two different groups of thinking, persists if and only if individuals develop sufficiently intense relations over time with others similar in one specific attribute. Relations with dissimilar others deteriorate and thus these two groups emerge.