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With the growing call for private sector actors to address global challenges, it is necessary to first assess whether regions with the greatest needs are accessing corporate philanthropy. In this paper, we ask whether corporate philanthropy is reaching those with the greatest health-care needs. Drawing on economic geography and corporate homophily, we argue that corporate philanthropy tends to exacerbate health inequality as grants are destined for counties with fewer health problems. We test and find support for this hypothesis using data on health grants made by US corporate foundations and county-level health data. Our results that corporate health grants are less likely to go to counties which have a lower proportion of medical service providers and insured citizens suggest that corporate foundations are unwittingly complicit in worsening the resource gap between small, poor, rural counties and large, wealthy, urban counties. From an ethical perspective, we provide some guidance as to how this may be corrected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increase in punitive sentiment in America over the last four decades is frequently attributed to changes in criminal justice policies and programs. While scholars have studied the impact of legislation and policy on justice system outcomes, less attention has focused on the role of political actors in legislative bodies who are largely responsible for enacting criminal justice legislation. The current study addresses this gap by examining the social organization of federal crime control policy in the U.S. Congress over a forty-two year period (1973-2014). Drawing from research on social network mechanisms, we examine whether crime control legislation was more politically attractive relative to other legislative topics, and whether Democrats and Republicans pursue these policies by working together or competing against each other. Our results provide novel insight into the mechanisms that contributed to the punitive movement at the federal level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study that offered a theory in which homophily mediates the perceptions of a firm by consumers that prefers to exercise its religious convictions in the for-profit market. Topics mentioned include the significance of religious rights and consumer access for marketing and public policy, the number of states in the U.S. that have religious freedom restoration acts (RFRA), and direct involvement of public policy in RFRA implementation.

Abstract: Petition canvassers are political recruiters. Building upon the rational prospector model, we theorize that rational recruiting strategies are dynamic (Bayesian and time‐conscious), spatial (constrained by geography), and social (conditioned on relations between canvasser and prospect). Our theory predicts that canvassers will exhibit homophily in their canvassing preferences and will alternate between “door‐to‐door” and “attractor” (working in a central location) strategies based upon systematic geographical variation. They will adjust their strategies midstream (mid‐petition) based upon experience. Introducing methods to analyze canvassing data, we test these hypotheses on geocoded signatory lists from two petition drives—a 2005–6 anti–Iraq War initiative in Wisconsin and an 1839 antislavery campaign in New York City. Canvassers in these campaigns exhibited homophily to the point of following geographically and politically “inefficient” paths. In the aggregate, these patterns may exacerbate political inequality, limiting political involvement of the poorer and less educated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How has the recent shift toward multidisciplinary research affected intellectual cohesion in academia? We answer this question through an examination of collaborations and knowledge flows among researchers. We examine the relevant case of Stanford University during a period of intense investment in multidisciplinary research, using a novel measure of knowledge flows in the short-cycled movement of published references from one researcher to another. We describe intellectual cohesion and its trajectory among 1,007 faculty members between 1997 and 2006, and then examine the social-structural antecedents of dyadic knowledge flows that help explain macro-level patterns. Results show that university collaborations have grown denser and more integrated across faculty members and their institutional divisions. However, this integration is led by "star" researchers and is accompanied by a greater centralization of knowledge flows around these individuals. Results illustrate important shifts in the nature of academic research, and contribute to a dynamic view of intellectual cohesion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports the results of a nationwide audit study testing how Christian churches welcome potential newcomers to their churches as a function of newcomers' race and ethnicity. We sent email inquiries to 3,120 churches across the United States. The emails were ostensibly from someone moving to the area and looking for a new church to attend. That person's name was randomly varied to convey different racial and ethnic associations. In response to these inquiries, representatives from mainline Protestant churches-who generally embrace liberal, egalitarian attitudes toward race relations-actually demonstrated the most discriminatory behavior. They responded most frequently to emails with white-sounding names, somewhat less frequently to black- or Hispanic-sounding names, and much less to Asian-sounding names. They also sent shorter, less welcoming responses to nonwhite names. In contrast, evangelical Protestant and Catholic churches showed little variation across treatment groups in their responses. These findings underscore the role of homophily, organizational homogeneity, and the costs of racial integration in perpetuating the racial segregation of American religious life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We develop a formal model to understand the selection and influence effects of social proximity (homophily) between business partners. Consistent with the model’s predictions, we find that U.S. venture capitalists (VCs) are more likely to select start-ups with coethnic executives for investment, particularly when the probability of the start-up’s success appears low. Ethnic proximity between VCs and the start-ups they invest in is positively related to performance, measured by the probability of the companies’ successful exit through acquisitions and initial public offerings (IPOs) and net income after IPO. Two-stage regression estimates suggest that these positive performance outcomes are largely due to influence, that is, superior communication and coordination between coethnic VCs and start-up executives after the investment. To the extent that VCs expect to work better with coethnic start-ups, they invest in coethnic ventures that are of lower observable quality than noncoethnic ventures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homophily, the tendency for similar actors to be connected at a higher rate than dissimilar actors, is a pervasive social fact. In this article, we examine changes over a 20-year period in two types of homophily—the actual level of contact between people in different social categories and the level of contact relative to chance. We use data from the 1985 and 2004 General Social Surveys to ask whether the strengths of five social distinctions—sex, race/ethnicity, religious affiliation, age, and education—changed over the past two decades in core discussion networks. Changes in the actual level of homophily are driven by the demographic composition of the United States. As the nation has become more diverse, cross-category contacts in race/ethnicity and religion have increased. After describing the raw homophily rates, we develop a case-control model to assess homophily relative to chance mixing. We find decreasing rates of homophily for gender but stability for race and age, although the young are increasingly isolated from older cohorts outside of the family. We also find some weak evidence for increasing educational and religious homophily. These relational trends may be explained by changes in demographic heterogeneity, institutional segregation, economic inequality, and symbolic boundaries. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Objectives The objectives of this study are to investigate the traits that clients find important in professional social service providers, comparing confidence in client management skills (friendliness, experience, and knowledge) to desire for demographic characteristics (being of the same race and religion). Methods To accomplish this task, we use multiple regression to analyze results of the Lehigh Valley Trust Survey of low-income recipients of social services. Results While most respondents find the professional traits important, there is significant variation in whether respondents consider demographic characteristics to be important. We find that having a provider of the same race is very important for African Americans and Hispanics, while having a provider with similar religious beliefs is extremely important for evangelical Protestants. Other predictive variables for homophilous preferences in race and religion are age, mobility, and education. Conclusions Professional skills corresponding to organizational position are important to most people, but specific demographic groups prioritize racial, ethnic, and religious homophily. While we suggest some possible explanations (perceived or actual discrimination and cultural concordance), further research is needed to determine the causes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores gender homophily in the humanities and humanistic social sciences in the U.S. Topics covered include the low doctoral degree completion rate, lengthy degree program and outcomes of doctoral education. Also mentioned are the completion rates in the programs, costs of high attrition rates and lack of interests of students in the field.

Abstract: Interest groups struggle to build reputations as influential actors in the policy process and to discern the influence exercised by others. This study conceptualizes influence reputation as a relational variable that varies locally throughout a network. Drawing upon interviews with 168 interest group representatives in the United States health policy domain, this research examines the effects of multiplex networks of communication, coalitions, and issues on influence reputation. Using an exponential random graph model (ERGM), the analysis demonstrates that multiple roles of confidant, collaborator, and issue advocate affect how group representatives understand the influence of those with whom they are tied, after accounting for homophily among interest groups. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Conventional wisdom holds that friends protect against depression through the social support they provide; however, depression likely has a role in structuring friendship networks. In particular, we investigate friend selection mechanisms responsible for similarity in depression among friends (i.e., homophily). Preference is one explanation, yet several correlates of depression make homophilous selection among depressed individuals unlikely. We propose two alternative mechanisms—avoidance and withdrawal—that can produce depression homophily in the absence of preference. These alternative mechanisms create homophily indirectly by limiting friendship partners available to depressed individuals. We test the preference, avoidance, and withdrawal mechanisms using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health and a dynamic network model. Results provide support for the withdrawal mechanism. These findings help explain how depression affects friend selection and have broader implications for understanding selection mechanisms responsible for network patterns such as homophily. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this study, we explore the determinants of cosponsorship activity within state legislatures. Utilizing a social dynamic framework, we develop and test a model of the interplay of the activities of sponsorship and cosponsorship that includes both individual-level and social network characteristics as determinants of agenda-setting behavior; the latter demonstrating how collaboration and mutual interests shape the agenda-setting process. We find several consistent factors that influence the frequency of cosponsorship activity: (1) ideological distance, (2) proximity of legislators' districts, (3) homophily (similar characteristics such as race, gender, and ethnicity), and (4) transitivity (the idea that friends of my friends are also my friends). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the religious landscape of the United States becomes increasingly diverse, understanding how individuals of different faiths relate to each other and the consequences of those relationships presents a significant issue for research. Research studying such faith-bridging interactions has been limited and primarily focused on interfaith marriage. Using social network data from the 2004 General Social Survey we examine the dynamics underlying the frequency of interfaith ties of all types. We then analyze how interreligious ties differ in strength from intrareligious ties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The US Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) program began in 1980 with the mission of addressing long-term ecological phenomena through research at individual sites, as well as comparative and synthetic activities among sites. We applied network science measures to assess how the LTER program has achieved its mission using intersite publications as the measure of collaboration. As it grew, the LTER program evolved from (a) a collection of independent sites (1981-1984) to (b) multiple ephemerally connected groupings with a gradual increase in collaboration (1985 to about 1998) to (c) a largely collaborative, densely connected network (from approximately 1999 on). Some sites demonstrated "preferential attachment" by contributing more to the evolution of network cohesion than others. Collaborative efforts of LTER scientists included cross-site measurements and comparisons, information technology transfer, documentation of methodologies, and synthesis of ecological concepts. Network science provides insights that not only document the evolution of research networks but also may be prescriptive of mechanisms to enhance this evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, those studying the restaurant industry have attempted to accurately assess what expectations are most important to restaurant patrons. The results have been centered on the domains of food, service, and atmosphere. This research adds the domain of social connectedness and homophily to the model. A scale to accurately and efficiently measure these concepts was created utilizing both qualitative and quantitative research techniques and engaging 5 samples numbering 2,500 respondents. Five stages were employed to provide validity, reliability, stability, and homogeneity. A 20-item sale-DinEX-was created using a two-step confirmatory analysis approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homophily theory argues that in situations of choice people tend to associate with people who are similar to them. Yet, the decidedly non-homophilous fact of heterosexual marriage may lead to non-homophilous pairings on race. Thus, a within-group mismatch of gender attitudes and an across-group matching of gender attitudes leads individuals to seek partners across racial lines. Analysis of survey data confirms this hypothesis for interracial marriages in the U.S. involving Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and Asians. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the impact of gender homophily on computer science (CS) classes in the U.S. Women's experience in CS classrooms is believed to be influenced by particular communication behaviors. Such influence is found to affect women's interest in such subject, as previous studies revealed a declining number of women who earned bachelor's degrees in CS. Gender differences are inferred to result to a negative interpersonal relationship and meaningless communication between sexes.

This paper explores the multiple expressions of Central American immigrant Pentecostalism in the Pico Union district of Los Angeles. Drawing on in-depth ethnographic fieldwork in three temples and informal conversations with over 30 active Pentecostals, this paper shows that Central American immigrant Pentecostals tend to congregate on the basis of “congregational homophily,” or shared social and cultural characteristics, especially in terms of age, marital status, presence of infirmities or ailments, and national/regional origin. This paper also explores the ways in which Central American immigrant Pentecostals tailor their religious practices to reflect their “congregational homophily” through the differential inclusion/exclusion of practices such as healing, “roommating,” and formal and informal discussions of shared histories. By focusing on “congregational homophily” and the active constructions and reconstructions of Central American immigrant Pentecostalism, we gain more insight into the ways some Central American immigrants negotiate their lives and experiences in the increasingly fettered social, cultural, and political topography of contemporary Los Angeles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]