Popularity and Entropy in Friendship and Enmity Networks in Classrooms

Looking for regular statistical trends of relations in schools, we constructed 42 independent weighted directed networks of simultaneous friendship and animosity from surveys we made in the Mexico City Metropolitan area in classrooms with students of different ages and levels by asking them to nominate and order five friends and five foes. However, the data show that older students nominated fewer than the five required five foes. Although each classroom was independent of the others, we found several general trends involving students of different ages and grade levels. In all classrooms, friendship entropy was found to be higher than enmity entropy, indicating that fewer students received enmity links than received friendship nominations. Popular agents exhibited more reciprocal nominations among themselves than less popular agents, and opposite-sex friendships increased with age.

Automated summary

We constructed 42 independent weighted directed networks from surveys in classrooms, which showed general trends of students' friendships and animosities based on age and grade level. Friendship entropy was higher than enmity entropy in all classrooms, indicating fewer students experienced enmity links. Popular students had more reciprocal nominations among themselves and opposite-sex friendships increased with age.