Gender homophily from spatial behavior in a primary school: a sociometric study

J. Stehlé (1, 2) , F. Charbonnier (2) , T. Picard (2) , C. Cattuto (3) , Alain Barrat (4, 1, 3)

1 CPT - Centre de Physique Théorique - UMR 7332
2 ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique
3 ISI - Data Science Laboratory
4 CPT - E5 Physique statistique et systèmes complexes

We investigate gender homophily in the spatial proximity of children (6 to 12 years old) in a French primary school, using time-resolved data on face-to-face proximity recorded by means of wearable sensors. For strong ties, i.e., for pairs of children who interact more than a defined threshold, we find statistical evidence of gender preference that increases with grade. For weak ties, conversely, gender homophily is negatively correlated with grade for girls, and positively correlated with grade for boys. This different evolution with grade of weak and strong ties exposes a contrasted picture of gender homophily.

Domaines: Physique et Société [physics.soc-ph]

J. Stehlé, F. Charbonnier, T. Picard, C. Cattuto, Alain Barrat. Gender homophily from spatial behavior in a primary school: a sociometric study. Social Networks, 2013, 35 (4), pp.604-613. ⟨10.1016/j.socnet.2013.08.003⟩. ⟨hal-00839055⟩