Homophily and minority-group size explain perception biases in social networks
People’s perceptions about the size of minority groups in social networks can be biased, often showing systematic over- or underestimation. These social perception biases are often attributed to biased cognitive or motivational processes. Here we show that both over- and underestimation of the size...
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Published in | Nature human behaviour Vol. 3; no. 10; pp. 1078 - 1087 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
London
Nature Publishing Group UK
01.10.2019
Nature Publishing Group |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | People’s perceptions about the size of minority groups in social networks can be biased, often showing systematic over- or underestimation. These social perception biases are often attributed to biased cognitive or motivational processes. Here we show that both over- and underestimation of the size of a minority group can emerge solely from structural properties of social networks. Using a generative network model, we show that these biases depend on the level of homophily, its asymmetric nature and on the size of the minority group. Our model predictions correspond well with empirical data from a cross-cultural survey and with numerical calculations from six real-world networks. We also identify circumstances under which individuals can reduce their biases by relying on perceptions of their neighbours. This work advances our understanding of the impact of network structure on social perception biases and offers a quantitative approach for addressing related issues in society.
Lee et al. show people's biases in social perception can be explained merely by the structure of their social networks, without assuming biased cognition. Social perception biases can be explained by homophily of personal networks and minority-group size. |
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Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 |
ISSN: | 2397-3374 2397-3374 |
DOI: | 10.1038/s41562-019-0677-4 |