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The tyranny of homophily (3 of 3)
Okay, folks, time for the coup de grâce. We’ve been discussing the impact of homophily (huh-MOFF-uh-lee) the past two weeks, specifically its effects on human opinion formation. Now we’re going to come up out of the weeds and take stock of the implications of all this. I find the consequences not merely sobering, but terrifying.…
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The tyranny of homophily (2 of 3)
Last time we looked at the phenomenon of homophily (huh-MOFF-uh-lee), perhaps the single most powerful factor influencing human behavior. Simply put, homophily means we want the people we associate with to be similar to us. Say you’re a casual NFL fan living in the U.S., and you move to Europe for a job. You’ll discover…
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The tyranny of homophily (1 of 3)
For the next three weeks I’d like to share some observations from my academic research. I wish I could say I had good news, but to be honest I find the results quite sobering. I study characteristics of societies using a technique called “agent-based modeling” (ABM). An agent-based model is a computational simulation of an…
