How women organize social networks different from men

TL;DR

This study analyzes gender differences in multiplex social networks within an online game society, revealing distinct behavioral and structural patterns between females and males across various network types.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive quantitative analysis of gender-specific behaviors and network structures in multiplex social networks using a large online-game dataset.

Findings

Females have more, but less connected, communication partners.

Females exhibit stronger homophily and higher clustering in trade and attack networks.

Males show under-represented cooperative links, indicating competitive behaviors.

Abstract

Superpositions of social networks, such as communication, friendship, or trade networks, are called multiplex networks, forming the structural backbone of human societies. Novel datasets now allow quantification and exploration of multiplex networks. Here we study gender-specific differences of a multiplex network from a complete behavioral dataset of an online-game society of about 300,000 players. On the individual level females perform better economically and are less risk-taking than males. Males reciprocate friendship requests from females faster than vice versa and hesitate to reciprocate hostile actions of females. On the network level females have more communication partners, who are less connected than partners of males. We find a strong homophily effect for females and higher clustering coefficients of females in trade and attack networks. Cooperative links between males are under-represented, reflecting competition for resources among males. These results confirm quantitatively that females and males manage their social networks in substantially different ways.