The homophily principle in social network analysis: A survey

In recent years, social media has become a ubiquitous and integral part of social discourse. Homophily is a fundamental topic in network science and can provide insights into the flow of information and behaviours within society. Homophily mainly refers to the tendency of similar-minded people to interact with one another in social groups than with dissimilar-minded people. The study of homophily has been very useful in analyzing the formations of online communities. In this paper, we review and survey the effects of homophily in social networks and summarize the state-of-art methods that have been proposed in the past recent years to identify and measure those effects in multiple types of social networks. We conclude with a critical discussion of open challenges and directions for future research.