Tobias H. Stark

The Double Edge of Common Interest: Ethnic Segregation as an Unintended Byproduct of Opinion Homophily.

How can we reduce ethnic friendship segregation in ethnically heterogeneous schools? The Common Ingroup Identity Model suggests that interethnic friendships are promoted by those intervention programs that focus on the interests students have in common. The authors argue that the outcome of these common interest interventions may crucially depend on sufficient consensus in participants’ opinions regarding the shared interest. Such an intervention may backfire and increase ethnic segregation if participants from different ethnic groups have different opinions about the common interest. The authors test their argument analyzing the dynamics of friendship networks and opinions in 48 school classes with an actor-based stochastic model. Their findings suggest that salient common interests in ethnically mixed school classes can indeed reduce ethnic segregation. However, they also found that friendship selection on the basis of similar opinions can foster ethnic segregation. This occurred when ethnicity was correlated with the opinions that students held regarding the salient interest, even when these students did not prefer intra-ethnic friendship per se.

Generalization of Positive and Negative Attitudes Toward Individuals to Outgroup Attitudes

The generalization of attitudes toward individual outgroup members into attitudes toward the outgroup as a whole can affect intergroup relations. However, little is known about the relative strengths of the generalization of negative and positive interpersonal attitudes into attitudes about the outgroup. The unique contribution of negative (disliking) interpersonal attitudes to intergroup attitudes was examined and its strength was compared with the effect of positive (liking) interpersonal attitudes, using cross-sectional (Study 1; N = 733, age 10-12) and longitudinal data (Study 2; N = 960, age 12-13). Disliking uniquely contributed to respondents’ outgroup attitudes. The generalization of interpersonal liking and disliking was about equally strong in both studies. This underpins the importance of examining the effects of both positive and negative intergroup contact experiences on the formation of outgroup attitudes.

Who is bullying whom in ethnically diverse primary schools? Exploring links between bullying, ethnicity, and ethnic diversity in Dutch primary schools

a b s t r a c t This study investigated associations between ethnicity, ethnic diversity, and bullying among 739 pupils enrolled in their last year of primary school. Hypotheses derived from social misfit and inter-ethnic relations theories were tested using the multilevel p2 model. Our key findings were: (1) inter- and intra- ethnic bullying are just as common in ethnically heterogeneous as in homogeneous classes; (2) pupils belonging to the Turkish and Moroccan minority groups bully significantly more than native Dutch (in particular according to victims); the chance to be victimized does not depend on the ethnic background of the pupil; (3) the prevalence of inter- and intra-ethnic bullying depends on the level of ethnic diversity in the class; inter-ethnic and intra-ethnic bullying increase with increasing levels of ethnic diversity.

Extended intergroup friendships within social settings: The moderating role of initial outgroup attitudes:

The current study hypothesized that extended intergroup friendships improve outgroup attitudes in particular for people with initially unfavorable outgroup attitudes, and for those without direct intergroup friendships. In contrast, building on structural balance theory, it was hypothesized that extended contact in small social settings may also be related to less favorable outgroup attitudes. Hypotheses were tested longitudinally among Dutch students (n = 661) who just entered multiethnic middle schools. Adopting concepts from social network analysis, an extended intergroup friendships measure was proposed which excludes direct intergroup friendships. Multilevel panel analyses showed that the effect of extended intergroup friendships with Turkish peers did not depend on whether adolescents had direct Turkish friends. Extended intergroup friendships were only related to improved outgroup attitudes for students with relatively unfavorable outgroup attitudes. Additional analyses show, in line with structural balance theory, that extended friendships within classrooms can also be related to outgroup attitudes negatively for students with favorable initial attitudes.

Disentangling the relation between young immigrants' host country identification and their friendships with natives

Immigrants who strongly identify with the host country have more native friends than immigrants with weaker host country identification. However, the mechanisms underlying this correlation are not well understood. Immigrants with strong host country identification might have stronger preferences for native friends, or they might be more often chosen as friends by natives. In turn, having native friends or friends with strong host country identification might increase immigrants’ host country identification. Using longitudinal network data of 18 Dutch school classes, we test these hypotheses with stochastic actor-oriented models. We find that immigrants’ host country identification affects friendship selections of natives but not of immigrants. We find no evidence of social influence processes.

GENSI: A new graphical tool to collect ego-centered network data

Abstract This study (1) tested the effectiveness of a new survey tool to collect ego-centered network data and (2) assessed the impact of giving people feedback about their network on subsequent responses. The new tool, GENSI (Graphical Ego-centered Network Survey Interface), allows respondents to describe all network contacts at once via a graphical representation of their networks. In an online experiment, 434 American adults were randomly assigned to answer traditional network questions or GENSI and were randomly assigned to receive feedback about their network or not. The traditional questionnaire and GENSI took the same amount of time to complete, and measurements of racial composition of the network showed equivalent convergent validity in both survey tools. However, the new tool appears to solve what past researchers have considered to be a problem with online administration: exaggerated numbers of network connections. Moreover, respondents reported enjoying GENSI more than the traditional tool. Thus, using a graphical interface to collect ego-centered network data seems to be promising. However, telling respondents how their network compared to the average Americans reduced the convergent validity of measures administered after the feedback was provided, suggesting that such feedback should be avoided.

Understanding the Selection Bias : Social Network Processes and the Effect of Prejudice on the Avoidance of Outgroup Friends

Research has found that prejudiced people avoid friendships with members of ethnic outgroups. Results of this study suggest that this effect is mediated by a social network process. Longitudinal network analysis of a three-wave panel study of 12- to 13-year-olds (N = 453) found that more prejudiced majority group members formed fewer intergroup friendships than less prejudiced majority group members. This was caused indirectly by the preference to become friends of one’s friends’ friends (triadic closure). More prejudiced majority members did not have a preference for actively avoiding minority group members. Rather, they had the tendency to avoid friends who already had minority group friends and thus could not be introduced to potential minority group friends. Instead they became friends with the majority group friends of their friends. This research shows how a social networks perspective can further our understanding of the processes underlying intergroup contact.

The relation between ethnic classroom composition and adolescents’ ethnic pride

This study investigated how students’ ethnic pride was related to variation in ethnic composition between classrooms as well as within the same classroom over time. Predictions derived from optimal distinctiveness theory (ODT) were tested among 13- to 14-year-old ethnic majority and minority students (N = 1,123). Lending support to ODT, a curvilinear relation between the share of same-ethnicity classmates and students’ ethnic pride was found in a cross-sectional analysis, with ethnic pride peaking in classrooms with approximately 50% same-ethnicity classmates. In line with ODT, longitudinal analyses revealed ethnic pride decreased for students who moved away from a share of 50% same-ethnicity classmates. Contrary to ODT, however, ethnic pride also decreased for students who moved closer to this point of optimal distinctiveness.

Generalization of Classic Question Order Effects across Cultures

Questionnaire design is routinely guided by classic experiments on question form, wording, and context conducted decades ago. This article explores whether two question order effects (one due to the norm of evenhandedness and the other due to subtraction or perceptual contrast) appear in surveys of probability samples in the United States and 11 other countries (Canada, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Taiwan, and the United Kingdom; N = 25,640). Advancing theory of question order effects, we propose necessary conditions for each effect to occur, and found that the effects occurred in the nations where these necessary conditions were met. Surprisingly, the abortion question order effect even appeared in some countries in which the necessary condition was not met, suggesting that the question order effect there (and perhaps elsewhere) was not due to subtraction or perceptual contrast. The question order effects were not moderated by education. The strength of the effect due to the norm of evenhandedness was correlated with various cultural characteristics of the nations. Strong support was observed for the form-resistant correlation hypothesis.

Collecting Social Network Data

Individual-level social network data are critical to understanding the dynamics that shape many important social outcomes. Survey research is one of the most common methods for collecting these data from individuals. However, there are a number of challenges that this particular task, mapping social networks, poses to survey-based data collection methods and new tools and research are needed to maximize the accuracy of these data. This chapter reviews some of the biggest challenges facing survey-based collection of social network data and highlights some promising new tools that have been developed to address some of these challenges. It also outlines promising directions for future research on how to best collect social network data.