Executive Summary
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This research note studies the determinants of four types of social ties between Malaysian university students using two sets of complete network data, one from a public university and one from a private university.
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Statistical analysis of the social networks reveals that ethnic, gender and language homophily have a significant effect on social-tie formation. That is, students of the same ethnicity, who speak the same language or who identify as the same gender are more likely to form social ties with each other. However, these effects differ between the public and private university social networks and according to the type of social tie.
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Further analysis of the factors that moderate ethnic homophily suggests that speaking Bahasa Malaysia reduces the tendency to form same-ethnicity social ties while growing up in a district with a higher concentration of residents of the same ethnicity enhances this tendency.
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These findings expand the evidence base showing that ethnic and language homophily are important factors that shape social-tie formation and highlight language and geography as important factors to consider in formulating policies for social cohesion.
About the Contributors
Hanson Chong is a researcher in the Economics, Trade and Regional Integration programme at the Institute of Strategic & International Studies (ISIS) Malaysia. He is a quantitative researcher primarily employing social network analysis and impact evaluation methods. He graduated from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) with an MSc in Social Research Methods under the Khazanah Postgraduate Global Scholarship and completed his BSc (Hons) Economics at the University of Nottingham Malaysia.
Jason Wee is the Executive Director of Architects of Diversity, a non-profit organisation that works towards building a peaceful, equitable and inclusive Malaysia. In his current role, he oversees thought leadership and research on social cohesion and anti-discrimination in the context of racial and religious relations. He has led various research projects including national surveys on attitudes towards intergroup relations, discrimination and national policies. Jason holds a Bachelor of Arts in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University.