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Toward curation and personality-driven social networks

Nature Human Behaviour volume 4, pages 123–125 (2020)Cite this article

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Whether or not social networks are significantly changing due to emergent technologies continues to be contested by researchers. Our understanding may advance by clarifying the cognitive mechanisms through which people curate their connections, along with the accompanying role of personality in shaping networks in the future.

Do humans have bigger or smaller social networks today? We reflect on the state of this research question and assert that an updated approach is needed to understand the effects of emergent technologies on network structure. Although the absolute changes in average network size are likely to remain elusive, recent perspectives converge on the idea that online technologies make it easier for individuals to shape—or curate—their social connections. Here we merge conflicting views and specify mechanisms through which curation technologies may impact personal network structure. Looking forward, we suggest personality will become more influential in network formation and maintenance when aided by technological levers. Consequently, curation technologies have the potential to increase differences in networks between types of people (for example, extroverts vs introverts) and thus generate new forms of social stratification, despite preserving a stable network size on average. The Comment concludes with empirical and theoretical implications, including the importance of attending to dispersion and examining the societal ramifications of personality-driven curation.

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Fig. 1: How curation might influence the distribution of network size.
Fig. 2: Impact of increasing curation on network size by personality type.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank J. Kamin, S. Campbell, E. Falk, A. Schrock and H. Jefferson for their feedback while developing the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Communication, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Joseph B. Bayer

  2. Translational Data Analytics Institute, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, USA

    Joseph B. Bayer

  3. Graduate School of Education, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Bas Hofstra

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  1. Joseph B. Bayer
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  2. Bas Hofstra
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Correspondence to Joseph B. Bayer.

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Bayer, J.B., Hofstra, B. Toward curation and personality-driven social networks. Nat Hum Behav 4, 123–125 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0751-y

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