Collaborators: Carl Nordlund, Martin Arvidsson, Maria Brandén, Selcan Mutgan, Laura Fürsich, Elis Carlsberg Larsson, Maël Lecoursonnais, Christian Steglich, Petter Holme, Neha Gondal.

Abstract: We know a lot about how social contacts within various social contexts — households, schools, workplaces, neighborhoods — influence individuals’ health, demographic and socioeconomic outcomes. We know rather little about how these different social contexts are interlinked, and thus we lack a good understanding about the true interconnectedness of society and its consequences. In order to fill this gap, our research utilizes the Swedish population register data for creating large-scale, population-wide networks that integrate multiple social contexts (i.e. multiplex networks). We study their properties, how they evolve, and the consequences they have for various social outcomes. Methodologically, we develop novel approaches for constructing, measuring, and analyzing full-population networks. Substantively, we provide novel insights into how interwoven and segregated societies are, how influence flows between domains to affect individuals’ outcomes, and how individuals’ networks develop from adolescence into adulthood.

Collaborators: Dorottya Kisfalusi, Eszter Vit, Erik Rosenqvist, Maria Brandén, Selcan Mutgan, Christian Steglich, Márta Radó.

Abstract: Equal chances for educational attainment are important for immigrant integration. In many Western countries, however, a considerable ethnic gap is observed in students’ school achievement. Although Sweden is one of the most egalitarian countries, still considerable inequalities are observed in school achievements. Whereas children of some immigrant groups perform similarly well in the school as ethnic majority children, other immigrant-background youth lag behind with regard to their test scores and school grades, even after controlling for their socio-economic status and language skills. In this project, we concentrate on three potential explanations that could contribute to ethnic differences in school performance after controlling for students’ abilities: discrimination in teachers’ grading practices, network mechanisms that differentiate academic achievement, and the emergence of oppositional culture. Our aim is to assess the contributions of these explanations to ethnic differences in academic achievement.

Collaborators: Flóra Samu, Júlia Galántai, Dorottya Kisfalusi, Eszter Vit, Simone Righi, José Luis Estévez, Robert Krause, Márta Radó, Srebrenka Letina, Boróka Pápay, Bálint Kubik, Szabolcs Számadó, Zsuzsanna Szvetelszky, Eliza Bodor-Eranus, Martina Katalin Szabó, Attila Gulyás, Ákos Bocskor, Laura Boldvai-Pethes, Zea Szebeni, Gábor Tóth, Kármen Czett, Matthew Maynard, Liyu Pan, and more

Abstract: According to common wisdom, gossip channels mainly negative and often fictitious information. If it is the case: how can dishonest gossip and the resulting biased reputations legitimize social order and promote cooperation? This is the main puzzle we tackle in this project exploiting a wide set of instruments. We use analytical modeling and agent-based simulation to derive hypotheses. We test simple hypotheses in small group experiments. We develop new methodological tools to appropriately analyze the triadic nature of gossip embedded in network flows of information. We utilize dynamic network datasets from primary and secondary school classes, and we gather qualitative and quantitative information from organizations to test conditional hypotheses about the role that gossip plays in reputation and cooperation in different developmental and social contexts of life. In addition, we apply new communication technologies currently under development to explore the hidden world of gossip and the dynamics of reputation in dormitories and organizations. With the insights gained, we can overcome common stereotypes about gossip and highlight how gossip is related to credible reputational signals, cooperation, and social order. Expected results will help us to outline the conditions that can promote cooperation in work groups, and they will help to construct successful prevention strategies for social exclusion and for other potentially harmful consequences of the evil tongue.

Collaborators: Simone Righi, Judit Pál, Bálint Néray, Zsófia Boda, András Vörös, Dorottya Kisfalusi, Eszter Vit, Eszter Mandácskó, Barbara Panyik, Flóra Samu, László Kiss, Attila Gulyás, Ákos Bocskor, Laura Boldvai-Pethes, Anikó Havelda, Pálma Mogyorósi, Tamás Keller, Eliza Bodor-Eranus, Márta Radó, Boróka Pápay, Gergő Havadi, Orsolya Ring, Jeromos Vukov, Milan Bojanowski, and more

Abstract: Negative ties, such as hate, or relational aggression contribute to serious problems in a variety of social contexts. They ruin cooperation, decrease performance, induce intergroup conflict, and hamper cohesion. It is therefore surprising that in the boosting literature on networks, ties have been thought mainly in positive terms. The research aims to correct this asymmetry and attempts to discover the true nature and mechanisms of negative relations. In the research program, we aimed to discover the true nature and mechanisms of negative relations and networks in different social contexts, to develop theories that explain their interrelated dynamics with competition, and to assess the impact of negative ties on performance, cooperation, cohesion, and ethnic integration.

Collaborators: Márta Radó, Tangbin Chen, Paul Lichtenstein, Dorottya Kisfalusi, Olivia Bannon Karlsson

Abstract: The increasing use of social media and alternative nicotine products, i.e., e-cigarettes and Swedish snus, poses new threats to stall the progress of tobacco control. Vast research shows how smoking spreads in social networks, but it remains unclear how alternative nicotine products and online interactions affect this spread. Understanding the social network mechanisms underlying nicotine product use is crucial for the design of effective policies. Novel policies for adolescents are needed to prevent nicotine product use at the age when this is typically initiated, even by those who would otherwise never use cigarettes. The project identifies the network mechanisms of how various nicotine products spread among adolescents. We examine (1) how different nicotine products spread and if alternative nicotine products renormalize cigarettes, (2) how cigarette use spreads online and offline, and (3) what the possible consequences of network-based interventions are, accounting for various nicotine products and online interactions.

Collaborators: Eliza Bodor-Eranus, Béla Janky, Eszter Vit, Zsuzsanna Szvetelszky, Beáta Lázár, Ákos Bocskor

Abstract: While social norms and metanorms supporting sanctions play a crucial role in norm compliance, little is known about their emergence in temporary settings lacking long-term interactions and reputation systems. In this project, we analyze the motivations and nature of volunteering at three Hungarian music festivals using survey, social network, and interview data. We investigate how norm violations are handled informally and what kind of informal institutions emerge to supplement formal ways of sanctions.

Collaborators: Dorottya Kisfalusi, Eszter Vit, Flóra Samu

Abstract: In Hungary and many other countries, a considerable ethnic and gender gap is observed in school achievement. Standardized blind tests show that whereas children of some ethnic minority groups perform similarly well in the school as ethnic majority children, other minority youth lag behind considerably. Even after controlling for standardized blind test scores, studies spanning various countries found evidence for ethnic differences in non-blind teacher assessments. Gender differences are less pronounced in standardized tests, but conditional on blind test scores, girls were found to receive better non-blind assessments than boys.
In this project, we concentrate on two potential explanations that might contribute to the ethnic and gender differences in students’ school grades conditional on standardized blind test scores: discrimination in teacher assessments and network mechanisms influencing students’ academic achievement. Our project brings together these two research lines and disentangles the underlying mechanisms behind differences in academic achievement. Analysing existing observational data of two large-scale panel datasets collected among minority and majority adolescents in Hungary and in four other European countries as well as conducting new experiments and a survey among both students and teachers in Hungary, we concentrate on the following two research goals: 1. We investigate whether certain groups of students are discriminated against in teacher evaluations and identify the potential underlying mechanisms; 2. We identify how social interactions between students contribute to ethnic and gender differences in school achievement through network mechanisms.

Collaborators: Szabolcs Számadó, Flóra Samu, István Zachar

Abstract: Honesty of communication is maintained by differential marginal cost and differential marginal benefits. On the one hand, the potential benefit of signalling has to be larger for honest signallers than the potential cost. On the other hand, the potential cost of signalling has to be larger for potential cheaters than the potential benefits. This statement can be translated to the following claim: communication will be honest if the marginal cost of being treated as a dishonest signaller is higher than the marginal benefits achieved by dishonest communication. Does this relationship hold in natural contexts? What are the potential costs and benefits of communication in human interactions? We investigate these questions by analytical, individual-based models, laboratory experiments and literature reviews.

Collaborators: Tamás Bartus, Judit Pál, Bálint Néray, Zsófia Boda, András Vörös, Dorottya Kisfalusi, Eszter Vit, Eszter Mandácskó, Barbara Panyik, Flóra Samu, Lilla Dorina Habsz, Zoltán Csaba, László Lőrincz, Kinga Varga, Gabriella Mezei, Laura Boldvai-Pethes, Anikó Havelda, Pálma Mogyorósi, Márta Radó, and more

Abstract: School segregation has been demonstrated by decades of research and practical experience as harmful for  the  disadvantaged  minority  as  it  contributes  to  lower  performance,  to  lower  chances  of entering highest education, and consequently to increasing inequality.  Even in integrated schools, friendships ties are typically highly segregated, thus integrated education does not necessarily mean integration at the level of primordial social order. Segregation of friendships may have serious implications for the effectiveness of social programs aiming to mix students of different social or ethnic backgrounds within classes. Segregation of friendships might imply the emergence of subcultures that oppose the objectives of schools and the educational system.  If friendship ties remain segregated in integrated classrooms, disadvantaged pupils will not be influenced by mainstream role models, and integrated education may reduce differences in scholastic performance between non-Roma and Roma pupils to a lesser extent than expected by experts and policymakers. The research project proposed here aims to describe and explain segregation of friendships within school classrooms. The basic postulates of our research agenda are that the problem of ethnic integration should be looked at the level of voluntary formation of friendship, negative and romantic ties; and that the problem of ethnic integration in the classroom cannot be looked at without analyzing the interrelated dynamics of social  networks,  status,  and  performance.  Status competition typically intensifies the segregation of friendship ties and might also lead to the social exclusion of disadvantaged pupils, or alternatively, as another problem, to the social exclusion of the best performing students.

The “Research Center for Educational and Network Studies (RECENS) Wired into each other” longitudinal social network study conducted in 44 secondary-school classrooms in Hungary between 2010 and 2013. Participants were asked to fill out paper-based surveys four times over a 3-year period (n = 1,767 students). These surveys explored peer relations and perceptions within each classroom in over 30 distinct network dimensions, including shared social activities, ties of affection, bullying and victimization, perceptions about peers’ traits (including their ethnicity), behaviors, social roles, and status. Alongside the network data, we collected information about students’ individual background (e.g., sex, ethnicity, socioeconomic status) and behaviors (e.g., smoking, studying habits). We further interviewed the main teacher of each classroom to gather data about teaching arrangements and teacher perceptions of students.