Gender patterns in a large oline social network

David Laniadodavid.laniado@barcelonamedia.org

with Yana Volkovich, Karolin Kappler and Andreas Kaltenbrunner

SocInfo 2014, Barcelona

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Gender homophily

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Tuenti, the “Spanish Facebook”

Popular Spain-based, invitation-only social networking site

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Dataset

Complete anonymized snapshot of the social network (Dec 2011)10 million users500 million friendship relationships

relative friendship order for each user500 million interactions on users’ walls during 3 months

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Building the social environment

1st research questionHow does gender affect SNS-adoption?Do men show a preference to accept invitations from men andwomen from women?Do online ego-networks grow in a gender-biased way?

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Joining the social network

Men: slight preference to accept invitation from another man (55%)

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Joining the social network

Men: slight preference to accept invitation from another man (55%)the second is more likely to have the same gender as the first one

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Joining the social network

Women: strong preference to accept invitation from a woman (72%)

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Joining the social network

Women: strong preference to accept invitation from a woman (72%)

If 1st friend was a woman, the 2nd is a woman with 70% probab.

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Friendship order

Women friend more women until about the 150th friendthen they friend more men

Men friend more women only after the 400th friend

100

101

102

1030.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

0.5

0.55

0.6

0.65

0.7

friendship order

frac

tion

of s

ame

gend

er fr

iend

s

fraction of male and female friends given friendship order

male friends of male usersfemale friends of female usersfemale friends of all users

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Gender homophily

2nd research questionDo men and women have similar friendship networks, both in sizeand composition?Is there a preference for connection among same gender users?

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Same gender friends

friends avg # men avg # women avg % same gendermen 82 78 51.48%women 76 85 56.46%

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 1000

0.02

0.04

0.06

0.08

0.1

0.12

0.14

0.16

percentage of same gender friends

frac

tion

of u

sers

distribution of the percentage of same gender friends

male friends of male usersfemale friends of female users

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Gender homophily by degree

Users with a smaller circle of friends have more women friends

0 200 400 600 800 10000.4

0.42

0.44

0.46

0.48

0.5

0.52

0.54

0.56

0.58

0.6

# friends

frac

tion

of u

sers

fraction of female friends of a user given degree

female friends

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Gender homophily by degree, broken down by gender

Tendency to heterophily goes along with bigger ego-networksalso men with less than 25 friends have more women friends

0 200 400 600 800 10000.34

0.36

0.38

0.4

0.42

0.44

0.46

0.48

0.5

0.52

0.54

0.56

0.58

0.6

0.62

0.64

0.66

# friends

frac

tion

of u

sers

fraction of the same−gender friends given degree

male friends of male usersfemale friends of female users

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Triangle motifs

3rd research questionHow does gender affect the network structure and the formation oftransitive relationships (triangles)?

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Triangle motifs by gender

Expected results in a perfectly gender balanced networkassuming same number of users, and same degree distribution

Type of triangle friendship networkexpected expected observed

(balanced) (reshuffled)

men only 12.5%

1 woman, 2 men 37.5%

2 women, 1 man 37.5%

women only 12.5%

total 3.64 × 1010

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Triangle motifs by gender

Randomly reshuffle the gender of users having the same degreeaccount for higher connectivity of women

Type of triangle friendship networkexpected expected observed

(balanced) (reshuffled)

men only 12.5% 11.6%

1 woman, 2 men 37.5% 36.6%

2 women, 1 man 37.5% 38.4%

women only 12.5% 13.4%

total 3.64 × 1010

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Triangle motifs by gender

Results observed: more single-gender triangles than expectedDeviation from the reshuffled model is stronger for men (+38%)than for women (+27%)

Type of triangle friendship networkexpected expected observed

(balanced) (reshuffled)

men only 12.5% 11.6% 16.0%

1 woman, 2 men 37.5% 36.6% 32.5%

2 women, 1 man 37.5% 38.4% 34.5%

women only 12.5% 13.4% 17.0%

total 3.64 × 1010

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Triangle motifs by gender (interaction network)

Expected results in a perfectly gender balanced networkassuming same number of users, and same degree distribution

Type of triangle interacion networkexpected expected observed

(balanced) (reshuffled)

men only 12.5%

1 woman, 2 men 37.5%

2 women, 1 man 37.5%

women only 12.5%

total 1.24 × 108

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Triangle motifs by gender (interaction network)

Randomly reshuffle the gender of users having the same degreemuch higher activity of women (write and receive more messages)

Type of triangle interacion networkexpected expected observed

(balanced) (reshuffled)

men only 12.5% 6.2%

1 woman, 2 men 37.5% 28.4%

2 women, 1 man 37.5% 43.3%

women only 12.5% 22.1%

total 1.24 × 108

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Triangle motifs by gender (interaction network)

Observed results: many more single-gender triangles thanexpected

Again, deviation from the reshuffled model is much stronger formen (+60%) than for women (+28%)

Type of triangle interacion networkexpected expected observed

(balanced) (reshuffled)

men only 12.5% 6.2% 9.9%

1 woman, 2 men 37.5% 28.4% 24.4%

2 women, 1 man 37.5% 43.3% 37.3%

women only 12.5% 22.1% 28.4%

total 1.24 × 108

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Conclusions

General tendency towards homophilymore accentuated for womenbut users with many friends tend to heterophily

Women: stronger homophily in their first steps in the socialnetwork

perceived presence of other women is fundamental to enter a newdigital social environment

⇒ this can explain why it can be hard to face gender gap

Tendency to form gender homogeneous groupsmore marked for menfuture work: study the composition of larger cliques and clusters

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Questions?

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