How social networks shape perceptions of ethnic minorities

This work presents an approach for meaningfully relating an individual's perceptions of ethnic minorities to their social network structure, linking country-wide survey data to population-scale social network data. Our perceptions are impacted by the social networks we are embedded in. Yet, we know little about this influence that structural properties of social networks have on determining our perceptions. Here we meaningfully connect the two elements of the research puzzle: the comprehensive description of one’s perceptions, specifically towards ethnic minorities, and their social network structure. Previous attempts include survey research that covers both a person’s perception of certain social norms as well as a description of their social network structure. Alternatively, a series of recent studies leverage online social media data to mine information on opinions and link it to network structure as represented by an online social media platform of choice. While offering valuable insights, these approaches cannot be considered as conclusive as they suffer from certain weaknesses. Surveys provide rather limited information on the social network structure as it is self-reported by an individual and reveals the chosen, very likely most active part of one’s social circle. On the other hand, online social media leaves plenty of room for mining opinions of interest, for instance, attitudes towards ethnic minorities, and does not provide the ability to distinguish the different types of relationships between individuals. To address the challenge of meaningfully relating individuals’ perceptions to their social network structure, we propose an innovative data combination that provides a comprehensive description of both one’s attitudes as well as their social networks. We source information on perceptions from a country-wide survey in the Netherlands, namely, the LISS panel (Longitudinal Internet Studies for the Social Sciences). The survey is conducted in the Netherlands on a representative sample of 7500 individuals and covers various perceptions topics such as gender roles, migration and ethnic minorities, political affiliation, and voting behavior. We enrich this information with official registers that contain the social ties of all residents of the country. From these registers, we construct a multilayered social network in which nodes are the people that are linked in case they share ties such as kinship, neighbors, classmates, colleagues, and household members. The question then is how i) the structural position of an individual and ii) the socio-demographic composition of their social network relate to their perceptions in the domain of migration and ethnic minorities. The underlying hypothesis of the study is that both direct and indirect exposure to various ethnic minorities through the social network is significantly associated with the perception of such minorities. Furthermore, we expect exposure to ethnic minorities through certain social contexts, namely, family, to be a stronger determinant of one’s attitudes toward these various ethnic groups as opposed to other social contexts in consideration.