This Article Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Web of Science (6) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Centola, D. Articles by San Miguel, M. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Homophily, Cultural Drift, and the Co-Evolution of Cultural Groups

Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA

Juan Carlos González-Avella

Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Studies and Complex Systems, Campus Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Víctor M. Eguíluz

Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Studies and Complex Systems, Campus Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Maxi San Miguel

Institute for Cross-Disciplinary Studies and Complex Systems, Campus Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, Spain

Studies of cultural differentiation have shown that social mechanisms that normally lead to cultural convergence—homophily and influence—can also explain how distinct cultural groups can form. However, this emergent cultural diversity has proven to be unstable in the face of cultural drift—small errors or innovations that allow cultures to change from within. The authors develop a model of cultural differentiation that combines the traditional mechanisms of homophily and influence with a third mechanism of network homophily, in which network structure co-evolves with cultural interaction. Results show that in certain regions of the parameter space, these co-evolutionary dynamics can lead to patterns of cultural diversity that are stable in the presence of cultural drift. The authors address the implications of these findings for understanding the stability of cultural diversity in the face of increasing technological trends toward globalization.

Key Words: social networks • cultural diversity • homophily • cultural drift • social dynamics

Journal of Conflict Resolution, Vol. 51, No. 6, 905-929 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/0022002707307632


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?