Purity homophily in social networks

Area of Science:

• Social Psychology
• Computational Social Science
• Moral Psychology

Background:

• Moral homophily, the tendency to connect with those sharing similar moral values, is recognized but specific drivers are unclear.
• Understanding which moral similarities influence social bonding is crucial for explaining community formation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate which types of moral similarities predict social tie formations.
• To examine the role of moral purity versus other moral content in social network dynamics.

Main Methods:

• Large-scale analysis of over 700,000 tweets to assess moral content and social network distance.
• Two behavioral lab experiments manipulating perceived moral similarity and difference to test social distancing effects.

Main Results:

• Differences in moral purity content of messages significantly predicted social network distance in observational data.
• Experimental manipulation confirmed that perceived moral purity differences drive social distancing behaviors.
• Other forms of moral content did not show a similar predictive effect on social distance.

Conclusions:

• Social network processes are influenced by moral selection, with moral purity being a key factor.
• Differences in moral purity concerns, both online and offline, are strong predictors of social distance.
• This research integrates big-data analysis with traditional experimental methods to study morality indirectly.