Social networks are segregated by sociodemographic characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, religion, and socioeconomic status. A key reason for this segregation is homophily, or people's preferences to associate with similar others. Homophily is documented for relationships of different strengths, ranging from marriage and close friendship to weaker acquaintanceships. But does sociodemographic homophily vary by relationship strength? While most researchers assume more pronounced sociodemographic homophily for strong than for weak relationships, theoretical expectations and empirical evidence are inconclusive. For instance, shared sociodemographic characteristics can come with joint experiences and identities that could facilitate the development of strong relationships. At the same time, however, matching personalities and attitudes may be necessary for forming strong relationships, so the superficial similarity that accompanies shared sociodemographic traits may only suffice for weak relationships. Based on these considerations, we test whether and how gender, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic status homophily vary by relationship strength in over 600 school-based networks of more than 20,000 adolescents from Israel, England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden. Using valued exponential random graph models, we find consistent evidence that strong tie homophily exceeds weak tie homophily. While adolescents are more likely to report strong ties with those who share their gender, ethnicity, religion, and socioeconomic status, homophily is less pronounced for weaker ties. Our finding suggests that it is crucial to consider the link between homophily and tie strength to understand the flow of information, resources, social support, and opportunities in social networks.

中文翻译：

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强纽，强同质？同质性对社会人口学特征的差异


社交网络按性别、种族、宗教和社会经济地位等社会人口特征进行隔离。这种隔离的一个关键原因是同性恋，或者人们喜欢与类似的其他人交往。同性恋被记录在不同强度的关系中，从婚姻和亲密友谊到较弱的熟人关系。但是，社会人口学上的同性恋是否因关系强度而异？虽然大多数研究人员假设强关系的社会人口同质性比弱关系更明显，但理论预期和经验证据尚无定论。例如，共同的社会人口特征可能伴随着共同的经历和身份，这可以促进牢固关系的发展。然而，与此同时，匹配的性格和态度可能是形成牢固关系所必需的，因此伴随着共同的社会人口特征的表面相似性可能只足以解决脆弱的关系。基于这些考虑，我们测试了性别、种族、宗教和社会经济地位是否以及如何在来自以色列、英国、德国、荷兰和瑞典的 20,000 多名青少年的 600 多个学校网络中因关系强度而异。使用值指数随机图模型，我们发现一致的证据表明强平局同质性优于弱平局同质性。虽然青少年更有可能报告与性别、种族、宗教和社会经济地位相同的人有很强的联系，但较弱的联系则不那么明显。 我们的研究结果表明，考虑同性恋和联系强度之间的联系对于理解社交网络中的信息、资源、社会支持和机会的流动至关重要。