Group mixing drives inequality in face-to-face gatherings

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the patterns of face-to-face social interactions lead to inequality among social groups, highlighting the roles of group mixing, size, and cohesion in shaping social disparities.

Contribution

It introduces a mechanism linking group mixing and size imbalance to social inequality, supported by sensor data analysis and theoretical modeling.

Findings

Group mixing influences social visibility disparities.

Critical group size determines cohesion and inequality.

Mixing dynamics cause under-representation in social rankings.

Abstract

Uncovering how inequality emerges from human interaction is imperative for just societies. Here we show that the way social groups interact in face-to-face situations can enable the emergence of disparities in the visibility of social groups. These disparities translate into members of specific social groups having fewer social ties than the average (i.e., degree inequality). We characterize group degree inequality in sensor-based data sets and present a mechanism that explains these disparities as the result of group mixing and group-size imbalance. We investigate how group sizes affect this inequality, thereby uncovering the critical size and mixing conditions in that a critical minority group emerges. If a minority group is larger than this critical size, it can be a well-connected, cohesive group; if it is smaller, minority cohesion widens degree inequality. Finally, we expose the under-representation of individuals in degree rankings due to mixing dynamics and propose a way to reduce such biases.