Friendship and Homophily 1
Friendship, Social Groups, and Homophily
I decided to look at why people chose the friends and social groups that they do. Which
lead me to the discovery of homophily and the work of George Homans who explains why
people do what they do. So I started doing some research on Homans and what other researchers
have said about homophily. All the research that I looked at said basically the same that
homophily plays a major role in how people choose their social groups. This also can explain
some division across the world. I lay out what exactly Homans’ law and homophily are and
follow it up with literature reviews. People choose their social groups based on their external and
internal similarities. I will explore the concept of cost with interacting with ones superiors and
inferiors, through how Homans explains it. Here I also look at homophily and how it plays a part
in the social setting of people in society.
3025 words
Introduction
Have you ever wondered why you and your close friends seem to share the same ideas
and opinions? Maybe even the same beliefs and morals? I believe people choose their social
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groups based on their external and internal similarities. This does not happen purely by chance,
but by a term homophily. Homophily means we choose to interact with people who are like us
(Collins, 1994, p. 135). So there is an actual social theory to explain how you are similar to your
close friends. This was created by George Homans in the 1950’s in which he created “Homans’
Law- that interaction increases liking and conformity provided it takes place among social
equals” (Collins, 1994, p. 135). The longer you are with someone the more likely you are to
share their ideas and opinions. This can also explain some division in people across the world.
Homans also says that “people are much more likely to stay with their equals” (Collins, 1994, p.
136). People apparently chose to be close to people they consider their equals, rather than those
who are different. Homans talks about how we do not like to be around our “Inferiors or
superiors” (Collins, 1994, p. 140). This law can explain how there is class and racial divide in the
world even in 2016. People do not want to start feeling inferior with their superiors and they do
not want inferiors to think they are like them according to Homans. I will talk about homophily
and all that goes into it. While having a literature review to discover what other researchers have
found in regards to homophily.
Homans’ Law/Homophily
Homans’ law otherwise known as homophily was developed in the 1950’s by George
Homans (Collins, 1994, p. 135). George Homans states that Homans’ law is “persons who
Friendship and Homophily 3
interact with one another frequently are more like one another in their activities than they are like
other persons with whom they interact less frequently” (Collins, 1994, p. 135). This law is
basically saying that the people we are closest to and who we spend the most time with, are
actually the ones we are most similar with. People we tend to not be around very much these are
the people according to Homans that we share more differences with that is why we do not
interact with them as much. This is called homophily “We choose to interact with people who
are like us, and our opinions and behaviors start to converge with that group over time” (Collins,
1994, p. 136). This explains why a person and their best friends usually always share the same
view points and moral compass. Because of this people from different backgrounds and
socioeconomic class tend to stick to their own groups. People like to be comfortable and stay
with their apparent equals.
George Homans goes on to talk about how there are cost for associating with one’s own
superiors or inferiors. “No doubt the girls were glad to get the services of their superiors, but the
price they paid was a tacit confession of their own inferiority” (Collin, 1992, p. 139). The cost to
being around your superiors for an extended amount of time makes you feel inferior, which
people do not like. Homans says that doing this is confessing that you are the inferior one in the
setting that you’re in. It would be like if a student was around a group of professors all the time,
the student is the inferior and they are reminded of that constantly. Homans also believes that if a
person starts to spend too much time with their inferiors that there is also a cost for that. The cost
of which is when this happens the persons inferiors start thinking that the person is one of them,
thus that person does not want to lose his superiority (Collins, 1992, p. 140). If a person is a type
of superior they do not wish to lose that power, thus they do not want to be around their so called
inferiors for very long. For example if a professor starts hanging out with a group of student
Friendship and Homophily 2
outside of school for very long the professor would slowly be thought of as an equal by the
students. The professor does not wish to lose that superiority over the students so that would
