Advances in the attraction model for inter-group relations

The present paper discusses a model of attraction towards similar others as a theoretical account of the problem of homophily in social relations. The focus of the paper is on investigating the properties of the model. More specifically, upon presentation of the logic behind the model, the discussion goes on to investigate the effects of social structural conditions (i.e., margins of an association matrix) on the model parameters - especially those referring to the strength of the homophily bias. This investigation leads to a reformulation of the problem of salience of a characteristic for association, defined, after Blau (1977) and Skvoretz (1983), in terms of the difference between the actual frequency of intra-group ties and the frequency expected under randomness. The attraction model is then compared with the log-linear model of quasi-independence. The objective of this comparisons is a precise specification of the attraction model's explanatory scope. The paper ends with an illustrative application of the model to GSS data on confiding relations along ethnicity and religious affiliation.