The casual effect of relational mobility on integration of social networks: An agent-based modeling approach.

Autor: Li LMW; Department of Psychology and Centre for Psychosocial Health, The Education University of Hong Kong, Tai Po, Hong Kong., Wang S; Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510006 China., Lin Y; Department of Psychology, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510006 China.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Current psychology (New Brunswick, N.J.) [Curr Psychol] 2022 Jun 07, pp. 1-17. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Jun 07.
DOI: 10.1007/s12144-022-03130-x
Abstrakt: Despite converging evidence for the importance of relational mobility on shaping people's social experiences, previous work suggested mixed findings for its influence on the structure of sociocentric networks, which lays the basis for the development of all types of social relationships. Additionally, as it is timely and economically intractable to administer such longitudinal experiments in real-life settings, most previous work mainly relied on cross-sectional correlation analyses and provided limited causal evidence. The current research used an agent-based modeling approach to examine whether higher relational mobility (i.e., the number of opportunities to meet new people) would promote integration among social networks over time. Using parameters derived from survey data, we simulated how the integration of sociocentric social networks evolves under different levels of relational mobility. Based on the data of three network structural indicators, including modularity, global efficiency, and standard deviation of nodal betweenness, we obtained causal evidence supporting that higher relational mobility promotes greater network integration. These findings highlight the power of socioecological demands on our social experiences.
Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s12144-022-03130-x.
Competing Interests: Conflicts of InterestThe authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.
(© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022.)
Databáze: MEDLINE