The results of a study of 72 million Facebook users yielded surprising results

Tram Ho

Researchers at Harvard’s Opportunity Insights used a massive Facebook dataset based on more than 72 million users to analyze how certain types of social conditions impact economic mobility. This issue was previously published in the journal Nature.

The first paper focused on “economic connectivity,” a term researchers use to describe the degree of camaraderie between users with lower and higher incomes. . Meanwhile, the second paper delves into more concrete examples of how these two relationships interact in the real world.

And according to this study, children from a low-income family are more likely to achieve economic achievement in adulthood if they have close relationships with high-income people. If low-income children were raised in an environment mostly surrounded by rich people, their income as adults would increase by 25-50%.

Overall, low-income individuals with well-off friends have improved high school completion rates and lower teen birth rates. This is a highly economic tie, the researchers say, and one of the strongest predictors of income growth identified to date.

Kết quả nghiên cứu 72 triệu người dùng Facebook cho ra kết quả bất ngờ - Ảnh 1.

According to the report, friendships between different classes of society have a greater impact on economic outcomes than family structure, school quality, employability and the racial composition of the community. The findings are not limited to affluent areas, but children in poor areas still perform better based on their level of economic connectivity. In other words, just bringing together children from different economies may not be enough to lead to better outcomes. Instead, according to the researchers, people interested in strengthening economic ties need to focus on interacting with each other and becoming real friends.

However, how to get an economic connection between the two classes is not simple, but partly because of the people who own the income. Still in this study, the scientists also showed that it is rare for an individual to overcome the income barrier to make friends, or in other words, children tend to hang out with people from different backgrounds. in the same class.

Who was measured in these studies?

According to this research group, Facebook friendship data has been collected from 72.2 million users, of which the age group 25-44 accounts for the majority. The data does not include personal information and is reported only on Facebook users who have at least 100 friends and have been active at least once on the platform in the last 30 days.

Kết quả nghiên cứu 72 triệu người dùng Facebook cho ra kết quả bất ngờ - Ảnh 2.

The researchers estimated these users’ income based on ZIP code, university, phone model, and other characteristics. In contrast, the neighborhoods’ incomes were compared using previously reported tax records. The results show that users of neighboring areas with more connections will have higher incomes.

In addition to revealing fluctuations in economic levels, the studies also provide interesting details about differences in friendship propensities among these groups. In general, poorer children are more likely to make friends with people in their neighborhood than those with high incomes. Those with higher incomes, on the other hand, are more likely to meet their friends in college. This finding reflects the fact that year after year, the middle class, upper class and the wealthy continue to fill university classes.

Neighborhoods with more racial diversity tend to have less class interactions, suggesting that racial segregation can make class division more difficult. It is worth noting here that the reported raw data itself does not include the racial characteristics of the user.

Kết quả nghiên cứu 72 triệu người dùng Facebook cho ra kết quả bất ngờ - Ảnh 3.

The researchers released a series of interactive maps illustrating the zip codes where interactions between these layers may or may not occur. The lowest levels of economic connectivity are often concentrated in the Southeast, Southwest and industrial cities in the Midwest. While zip codes with the highest engagement tend to form around the Northeast coast and rural Midwest.

Share the news now

Source : Genk