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The Friendship Paradox and Systematic Biases in Perceptions and Social Norms

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  • Matthew O. Jackson

Abstract

The “friendship paradox” (first noted by Feld in 1991) refers to the fact that, on average, people have strictly fewer friends than their friends have. I show that this oversampling of more popular people can lead people to perceive more engagement than exists in the overall population. This feeds back to amplify engagement in behaviors that involve complementarities. Also, people with the greatest proclivity for a behavior choose to interact the most, leading to further feedback and amplification. These results are consistent with studies finding overestimation of peer consumption of alcohol, cigarettes, and drugs and with resulting high levels of drug and alcohol consumption.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew O. Jackson, 2019. "The Friendship Paradox and Systematic Biases in Perceptions and Social Norms," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(2), pages 777-818.
    • Handle: RePEc:ucp:jpolec:doi:10.1086/701031
    DOI: 10.1086/701031
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    Cited by:

    1. Mira Frick & Ryota Iijima & Yuhta Ishii, 2018. "Dispersed Behavior and Perceptions in Assortative Societies," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2128R2, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Oct 2021.
    2. Evan Sadler & Benjamin Golub, 2021. "Games on Endogenous Networks," Papers 2102.01587, arXiv.org, revised Feb 2024.
    3. Arthur Campbell & C. Matthew Leister & Yves Zenou, 2020. "Word‐of‐mouth communication and search," RAND Journal of Economics, RAND Corporation, vol. 51(3), pages 676-712, September.
    4. Garance Genicot, 2022. "Tolerance and Compromise in Social Networks," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 130(1), pages 94-120.
    5. González, Felipe, 2020. "Collective action in networks: Evidence from the Chilean student movement," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    6. Bing Han & David Hirshleifer & Johan Walden, 2023. "Visibility Bias in the Transmission of Consumption Beliefs and Undersaving," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 78(3), pages 1647-1704, June.
    7. Francis Bloch & Matthew O. Jackson & Pietro Tebaldi, 2023. "Centrality measures in networks," Social Choice and Welfare, Springer;The Society for Social Choice and Welfare, vol. 61(2), pages 413-453, August.
    8. Mira Frick & Ryota Iijima & Yuhta Ishii, 2018. "Dispersed Behavior and Perceptions in Assortative Societies," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 2128R3, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University, revised Jun 2022.
    9. Ronak Jain & Vatsal Khandelwal, 2024. "Silent networks: The role of inaccurate beliefs in reducing useful social interactions," CSAE Working Paper Series 2024-06, Centre for the Study of African Economies, University of Oxford.
    10. Andreas Bjerre-Nielsen & Martin Benedikt Busch, 2022. "Statistical inference in social networks: how sampling bias and uncertainty shape decisions," Papers 2205.13046, arXiv.org.
    11. Wichers, Hendrika Geesje, 2023. "Targeted intervention using network characteristics: An experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 103(C).
    12. Juan Carlos Urueña-Mejía & Luis H. Gutierrez & Paul Rodríguez-Lesmes, 2023. "Financial inclusion and business practices of microbusiness in Colombia," Eurasian Business Review, Springer;Eurasia Business and Economics Society, vol. 13(2), pages 465-494, June.
    13. Belhaj, Mohamed & Deroïan, Frédéric, 2021. "The value of network information: Assortative mixing makes the difference," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 126(C), pages 428-442.
    14. Jim Leitzel, 2021. "Double defaults: Behavioral regulation of cocaine," Journal of Behavioral Economics for Policy, Society for the Advancement of Behavioral Economics (SABE), vol. 5(1), pages 7-12, Septembre.
    15. Zenou, Yves & Bochet, Olivier & Faure, Mathieu & Long, Yan, 2020. "Perceived Competition in Networks," CEPR Discussion Papers 15582, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    16. Promit K. Chaudhuri & Matthew O. Jackson & Sudipta Sarangi & Hector Tzavellas, 2023. "Games Under Network Uncertainty," Papers 2305.03124, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2024.
    17. Yan Leng & Xiaowen Dong & Esteban Moro & Alex Pentland, 2024. "Long-Range Social Influence in Phone Communication Networks on Offline Adoption Decisions," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 35(1), pages 318-338, March.

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