Wang Cheng, Lizardo Omar, Hachen David S
Department of Sociology, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI USA.
Department of Sociology, University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA USA.
Appl Netw Sci. 2025;10(1):16. doi: 10.1007/s41109-025-00710-1. Epub 2025 May 23.
The friendship paradox, initially discussed by Scott Feld in 1991, highlights a counterintuitive social phenomenon where individuals tend to have fewer friends than their friends do on average. The sociological implications of this paradox are profound, as it can create a distorted understanding of social norms and consequently influence beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, particularly when highly connected individuals present a skewed representation of those norms. In essence, it can lead individuals to misjudge what is typical or desirable within their social circles. This study investigates the temporal dynamics of the friendship paradox using smartphone communication data from over 600 incoming freshmen at the University of Notre Dame participating in the NetHealth project. By tracking the friendship index- the ratio of an individual's friends' average number of friends to their own number of friends- over 119 days during the Fall semester of 2015, we examine how the paradox evolves over time. Our findings reveal that the friendship index stabilizes more rapidly than both the individuals' own degree and the variation among their friends' degrees. Results from the latent growth-curve model (LGCM) confirm that while the friendship index continues to increase, its growth rate declines over time. Moreover, the LGCM identifies individual degrees, ethnic backgrounds, and personality traits as influential factors shaping the manifestation and development of the friendship paradox. By exploring the mechanisms underlying this paradox in a dynamic communication network, this study enhances our understanding of the structural factors influencing the evolution of the friendship paradox in digitally mediated interactions.
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41109-025-00710-1.
友谊悖论最初由斯科特·费尔德于1991年提出，它突出了一种违反直觉的社会现象，即个人的朋友数量往往比其朋友的平均朋友数量少。这一悖论的社会学意义深远，因为它可能导致对社会规范的扭曲理解，进而影响信念、态度和行为，尤其是当高度社交的个体对这些规范呈现出偏差的表征时。本质上，它会使个体误判其社交圈子中什么是典型的或可取的。本研究利用来自圣母大学参与NetHealth项目的600多名新生的智能手机通信数据，调查友谊悖论的时间动态。通过在2015年秋季学期的119天内跟踪友谊指数——个体朋友的平均朋友数量与自身朋友数量的比率——我们研究了悖论如何随时间演变。我们的研究结果表明，友谊指数比个体自身的度数以及其朋友度数的变化更迅速地趋于稳定。潜在增长曲线模型（LGCM）的结果证实，虽然友谊指数持续上升，但其增长率随时间下降。此外，LGCM确定个体度数、种族背景和个性特征是塑造友谊悖论表现和发展的影响因素。通过在动态通信网络中探索这一悖论背后的机制，本研究增进了我们对影响数字媒介互动中友谊悖论演变的结构因素的理解。
在线版本包含可在10.1007/s41109-025-00710-1获取的补充材料。
