AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF UNIDIMESIONALITY OF OPINIONS AND THE EFFECT OF HOMOPHILY
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Date
2019
Authors
Maratova, Merey
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Nazarbayev University School of Sciences and Humanities
Abstract
The goal of the present paper is to experimentally test the unidimensionality
of opinions and the effect of homophily on unidimensionality in terms of speed
of convergence. The phenomenon of unidimensionality of opinions implies
the convergence of opinions in a multidimensional set of issues into one
dimension under the assumption that subjects weight the opinions of other
subjects symmetrically. But individuals may assign different weights to the
opinions of others. One of the reasons is the homophilous relation between the
subjects when they interact more with those who share similar characteristics.
In the experiment, two types of group are tested: subjects in the control groups
exchange with the signals without no information about their groupmates,
subjects in the treatment groups exchange with the signals knowing the gender
of their groupmates. As a result of the experiment, the opinions on two
independent issues of subjects become closer to each other and made an
alignment. This result is consistent with the theoretical prediction. Regarding
the homophily, subjects who observed characteristics of their groupmates
tended to converge in a higher degree than subjects who didn’t observe any
characteristics...
Description
Keywords
homophily
Citation
Maratova, Merey (2019) AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF UNIDIMESIONALITY OF OPINIONS AND THE EFFECT OF HOMOPHILY. Nazarbayev University, School of Humanities and Social Sciences.