On the larger campus, students were able to seek out their ideological twins; on the smaller campuses people made friends with people very different from them.* Forced by circumstance to befriend people at least somewhat different from themselves, they did so. And they made the friendships work: those at the smaller colleges were actually closer and lasted longer than the friendships at the larger university. Offered a wider choice of friends, students at larger schools chose sameness. It’s astonishing how widespread this tendency to homophily can be, and it can be both deep-rooted and
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Homophily
