在观察性社会网络研究中，同质性和传染性是一般混淆的
Homophily and Contagion Are Generically Confounded in Observational Social Network Studies
摘要：
我们认为社交网络上的过程可能涉及三个因素：同质性，或由于匹配的个人特征而形成的社会联系;社会传染，也称为社会影响;以及个人协变量对他们的行为或其他可测量的反应的因果影响。我们表明，一般来说，所有这些都是相互混淆。将它们彼此区分需要对社会过程的参数化或所用协变量的充分性（或两者）进行强有力的假设。特别是，我们证明，用简单的例子，在回归系数的不对称性不能识别因果关系的影响，非常简单的模仿模型（一种形式的社会传染）可以产生一个人的持久性状和他们的选择之间的实质性的相关性，即使它们之间没有内在的亲和力。我们还提出了一些可能的建设性的回应这些结果。
英文摘要：
We consider processes on social networks that can potentially involve three factors: homophily, or the formation of social ties due to matching individual traits; social contagion, also known as social influence; and the causal effect of an individual's covariates on their behavior or other measurable responses. We show that, generically, all of these are confounded with each other. Distinguishing them from one another requires strong assumptions on the parametrization of the social process or on the adequacy of the covariates used (or both). In particular we demonstrate, with simple examples, that asymmetries in regression coefficients cannot identify causal effects, and that very simple models of imitation (a form of social contagion) can produce substantial correlations between an individual's enduring traits and their choices, even when there is no intrinsic affinity between them. We also suggest some possible constructive responses to these results.
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