Analysis of contested reports in exchange networks based on actors’ credibility |
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Institution: | 1. Indiana University, Departments of Sociology and Statistics, 752 Ballantine Hall, 1020 E. Kirkwood Avenue, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA;2. Post-Graduate Program in Amazonian Society and Culture, Federal University of Amazonas, Brazil;1. Department of Psychology, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA;2. Department of Surgery, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, VA;3. Bariatric Surgery Center, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN;1. Ryerson University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario M5B2K3, Canada;2. St. Michael''s Hospital, Canada;3. Toronto General Hospital, Canada;1. European Hand Institute, Kirchberg Hospital, Luxembourg, Luxembourg;2. Department of Orthopedics, Aspetar, Doha, Qatar;3. Department of Orthopedics, Cornouaille Hospital, Quimper, France;1. Department of Statistics, The Ohio State University, United States;2. Department of Sociology, The Ohio State University, United States |
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Abstract: | Exchanges of information, goods, and services are an essential part of human relations. However, a significant number of reported exchange ties tend to be contested: the reports of the sender and the receiver in an exchange do not concur with each other. To accurately understand the exchange ties between actors and the properties of the associated exchange networks, it is important to address such disagreement. Common practices either eliminate the contested reports or symmetrize them. Neither of them is ideal, as both underuse valuable information in the reports. In this paper, we propose new methods for handling contested exchange ties. The key idea is to measure actors’ credibility based on their asymmetric connections. For example, an actor is less credible the more contested ties she or he has. Using the credibility scores thus calculated, we develop two methods for handling contested ties. The first method is deterministic: it takes the report of the more credible actor as a reflection of the true exchange status between two actors. The second method is stochastic: it assumes the true exchange status between two actors is a random draw from their reports with probabilities proportional to their credibility. We illustrate the above methods by analyzing contested reports in cigarette exchange networks among middle school students in China and social and economic exchange networks among rural households in South Africa. The results show that our methods provide more reasonable corrections to contested reports than previous methods. |
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Keywords: | Exchange networks Contested reports Measurement error Credibility |
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