Selective Formation of Social and Spatial Groups at a Massive Gathering

• Activity Number: 542
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 12, 2015 : 10:30 AM to 12:20 PM
• Sponsor: Social Statistics Section
• Author(s): Ian Barnett* and Jukka-Pekka Onnela and Tarun Khanna
• Companies: Harvard University and Harvard University and Harvard University
• Keywords: Homophily ; Population Dynamics ; Social Networks ; Call detail records ; Communication Networks

Abstract

A person's behavior can be drastically altered when in a crowd. In massive gatherings these changes in behavior have contributed to unpredictable and devastating outcomes, such as human stampedes. We explore one such behavior, homophily, the common finding that individuals who frequently interact tend to be similar. With call detail records from one of the largest cellular service providers in India, we examine the population dynamics and homophilous tendencies of the residents of 23 states of India at the alleged largest gathering of people in human history, the 2013 Kumbh Mela, a religious Hindu festival. We find that people from underrepresented states display greater cliquishness, both by clustering tightly together spatially as well as by being more tight-knit in their social networks.