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Homophily and the Persistence of Disagreement

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  • Isabel Melguizo

    (Universidad Iberoamericana. Economics Department.)

Abstract

We study a dynamic model of attitude formation in which individuals average others' attitudes to develop their own. We assume that individuals exhibit homophily in sociodemographic exogenous attributes, that is, the attention they pay to each other is based on whether they possess similar attributes. We also assume that individuals exhibit homophily in attitudes, at the group level. Specifically, attributes that are salient, that is, that exhibit a substantial difference in attitudes between the groups of individuals possessing and lacking them, deserve high attention. Since we allow attention to evolve over time we prove that when there is, initially, a unique most salient attribute, it deserves growing attention overtime in detriment of the remaining ones. As a result, individuals eventually interact only with others similar to them across this attribute and disagreement persists. It materializes in two groups of thinking defined according to this attribute.

Suggested Citation

  • Isabel Melguizo, 2017. "Homophily and the Persistence of Disagreement," Working Paper Series Sobre México 2017001, Sobre México. Temas en economía.
    • Handle: RePEc:smx:wpaper:2017001
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    Cited by:

    1. Jiabin Wu & Hanzhe Zhang, 2022. "Polarization, antipathy, and political activism," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 60(3), pages 1005-1017, July.
    2. Tiago V. V. Cavalcanti & Chryssi Giannitsarou & Charles R. Johnson, 2017. "Network cohesion," Economic Theory, Springer;Society for the Advancement of Economic Theory (SAET), vol. 64(1), pages 1-21, June.
    3. Christos Mavridis & Nikolas Tsakas, 2021. "Social Capital, Communication Channels and Opinion Formation," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 56(4), pages 635-678, May.
    4. Jiménez-Martínez, Antonio & Melguizo-López, Isabel, 2022. "Making friends: The role of assortative interests and capacity constraints," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 203(C), pages 431-465.
    5. Polanski, Arnold & Vega-Redondo, Fernando, 2023. "Homophily and influence," Journal of Economic Theory, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).

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    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • D85 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Network Formation
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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