• Naoki Maejima Graduate School of Humanities and Sociology, The University of Tokyo

• Sawako Shirahase TCJS Director

In this presentation, he will discuss the possibility that online media and hobbies can connect heterogeneous people. As the proverb says, “birds of a feather flock together.” People who have similar social attributes tend to become friends naturally, without any help. In sociology, this tendency is called “homophily.” homophily is a universally observed and strongly robust tendency in social network formation. However, under what conditions can the mechanism of homophily be weakened? He will introduce two research findings. First, from fieldwork in a high-school classroom, it was revealed that the online social network was less homophilous than the offline. Second, ongoing research shows that the intermarriage rate is higher among couples who meet through their hobbies than couples who meet through other opportunities.