Social contagion and homophily within romantic networks: A simulation analysis

Abstract

La logique du social anticipated, 35 years ago, the current conception of complex adaptive systems, where agents behave following some kind of rational behavior, interact among themselves and, as a result of those interactions, produce an unintended outcome. The aim of this paper is to illustrate Raymond Boudon’s approach by means of an agent based simulation model, where agents represent teenagers who attempt to find a romantic relationship looking for a partner within their friendship ties. Partner choice is ruled by a homophilic principle which is, in the case of this artificial society, assumed to operate in a very simple way: agents look for someone who is similar to them in a given socio-cultural trait. At the same time, the value of this trait (which is assumed to be measured on a quantitative scale) for every agent is influenced by the values of other agents in the immediate environment. It is shown how these two social processes are interdependent, thus producing outcomes which are causally related.