TY - JOUR
T1 - Individual Motivations and Network Effects
T2 - A Multilevel Analysis of the Structure of Online Social Relationships
AU - Welles, Brooke Foucault
AU - Contractor, Noshir
N1 - Funding Information:
We would like to thank Linden Labs for providing the data used in this analysis. This research was funded, in part, by the National Science Foundation (IIS-0841583, OCI-0904356, and CNS-1010904) and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (W911NF-09-2-0053). We gratefully acknowledge all our sponsors. The findings presented here do not in any way represent, either directly or through implication, the policies of these organizations.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 by The American Academy of Political and Social Science
PY - 2015/5/15
Y1 - 2015/5/15
N2 - This article explores the relative influence of individual and network-level effects on the emergence of online social relationships. Using network modeling and data drawn from logs of social behavior inside the virtual world Second Life, we combine individual- and network-level theories into an integrated model of online social relationship formation. Results reveal that time spent online and the network pressure toward balance (individuals tending to form relationships with others who have relationships in common) predict the emergence of online relationship ties, while gender, age, proximity, homophily (the tendency of individuals to form relationships among people with similar traits), and preferential attachment are not significant predictors within the observed networks. We discuss these results in light of existing research on online social relationships and describe how digital data and network analytics enable novel insights about the emergence of online social relationships.
AB - This article explores the relative influence of individual and network-level effects on the emergence of online social relationships. Using network modeling and data drawn from logs of social behavior inside the virtual world Second Life, we combine individual- and network-level theories into an integrated model of online social relationship formation. Results reveal that time spent online and the network pressure toward balance (individuals tending to form relationships with others who have relationships in common) predict the emergence of online relationship ties, while gender, age, proximity, homophily (the tendency of individuals to form relationships among people with similar traits), and preferential attachment are not significant predictors within the observed networks. We discuss these results in light of existing research on online social relationships and describe how digital data and network analytics enable novel insights about the emergence of online social relationships.
KW - computational social science
KW - multilevel multitheoretical modeling
KW - network science
KW - online friendship
KW - p/ERGM
KW - virtual worlds
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84927144708&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84927144708&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0002716214565755
DO - 10.1177/0002716214565755
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84927144708
SN - 0002-7162
VL - 659
SP - 180
EP - 190
JO - Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
JF - Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
IS - 1
ER -