“不友好”问题：同性恋对社会影响因果关系估计的影响
The "Unfriending" Problem: The Consequences of Homophily in Friendship Retention for Causal Estimates of Social Influence
摘要：
越来越多的学者正在使用纵向社会网络数据，试图获得同行或社会影响力的估计。这些数据可能提供额外的统计杠杆，但它们可能会引入新的推理问题。特别是，虽然同质性在友谊形成中的混淆效应得到了广泛的认可，但在友谊保持中的同质性也可能混淆纵向网络数据中社会影响力的因果估计。我们在对Christakis、Fowler及其同事在众多文章中使用的统计模型进行蒙特卡罗分析时为这一说法提供了证据，这些文章估计了社交网络中的“传染”效应。我们的研究结果表明，同质性在友谊保留引起显着的向上偏差和降低覆盖水平的Christakis和福勒模型，如果有不可忽略的友谊磨损随着时间的推移。
英文摘要：
An increasing number of scholars are using longitudinal social network data to try to obtain estimates of peer or social influence effects. These data may provide additional statistical leverage, but they can introduce new inferential problems. In particular, while the confounding effects of homophily in friendship formation are widely appreciated, homophily in friendship retention may also confound causal estimates of social influence in longitudinal network data. We provide evidence for this claim in a Monte Carlo analysis of the statistical model used by Christakis, Fowler, and their colleagues in numerous articles estimating "contagion" effects in social networks. Our results indicate that homophily in friendship retention induces significant upward bias and decreased coverage levels in the Christakis and Fowler model if there is non-negligible friendship attrition over time.
机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来，可能存在错误，请以论文正文为准。
