Visibility of minorities in social networks

Abstract

Homophily can put minority groups at a disadvantage by restricting their ability to establish links with people from a majority group. This can limit the overall visibility of minorities in the network. Building on a Barab\'{a}si-Albert model variation with groups and homophily, we show how the visibility of minority groups in social networks is a function of (i) their relative group size and (ii) the presence or absence of homophilic behavior. We provide an analytical solution for this problem and demonstrate the existence of asymmetric behavior. Finally, we study the visibility of minority groups in examples of real-world social networks: sexual contacts, scientific collaboration, and scientific citation. Our work presents a foundation for assessing the visibility of minority groups in social networks in which homophilic or heterophilic behaviour is present.