Dispositional Optimism and the Emergence of Social Network Diversity

Abstract

Personality has yet to be examined as an indirect yet powerful determinant of the diversity of personal social networks that is independent of preference- and population-based mechanisms. I use the 2004 General Social Survey to illustrate how dispositional optimism shapes core discussion network size as well as demographic heterophily among core ties. I find that optimism is associated with enhanced network size as well as ties among nonkin and across lines of age, education, and race. Following these results, I urge closer attention to personality as it dynamically shapes the social structure of opportunities and resources.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to Jennifer Glanville, Steve Hitlin, Freda Lynn, Anthony Paik, and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback. Thanks also to the 2011 Jakobsen Graduate Research Conference and to the Presidential Graduate Fellowship program at The University of Iowa.

NOTES

Notes

¹ Consistent with this argument, analyses using the 2004 General Social Survey revealed that dispositional optimism and education both predict generalized trust in a multiple regression equation that includes demographic controls (unstandardized bs = 0.062 and .074, ps < 0.001).

² Fischer (2009, 2011) demonstrates that the 2004 GSS social networks data include an abnormally large number of social isolates (i.e., respondents who reported zero core confidants). These random faults of survey administration arguably do not bias the argument being made in this article. For network size outcomes (overall and nonkin network size, and possession of a nonkin tie), the nomination of fewer alters than expected should perhaps even make it more difficult to reveal the hypothesized relationship between optimism and network size, as there is less variability to analyze. Network diversity outcomes should not be impacted by administrative faults net of underestimation of network size.

³ The 2004 GSS also contains two other items from the Life Orientation Test-Revised: OPTIMIST (“I'm always optimistic about my future.”) and PESSIMST (“I hardly ever expect things to go my way.”). Auxiliary analyses showed that MOREGOOD and NOTCOUNT together create a two-item measure of dispositional optimism that is maximally predictive of various aspects of network diversity (relative to other one-item, three-item, and four-item approaches). In keeping with previous validations of this scale, items were weighted equally. Sensitivity analyses revealed that the relevance of optimism to social network size and diversity holds for numerous, although not all, measurement approaches. This may have occurred as a result of network measurement error and also because of item content issues. Regarding the latter, OPTIMIST refers to an unqualified sense of positivity rather than expectations per se, and PESSIMST, when combined with MOREGOOD and NOTCOUNT, creates an unbalanced scale (i.e., one with two pessimism items and only one optimism item). Indeed, Mirowsky and Ross (1991) examined the social-psychological construct of sense of control, finding that scale balancing was vital to reducing measurement error in the form of acquiescence bias. More specifically, some respondents agree with certain statements merely because they are worded positively, and it is necessary to balance “good” and “bad” outcome items in order to eliminate such measurement bias.

⁴ Extreme divergences between these two items (i.e., answering very optimistically on one and very pessimistically on the other; weighted N = 106) is far less common than extreme convergence (weighted N = 379.9). For more than 1,300 respondents, the two items agree within one point.

⁵ Relative to the reference category of Protestant, respondents with no religious preference were substantially more likely to possess a heterophilous tie (unstandardized b = 1.21, p < 0.001).

⁶ All descriptive statistics and estimated models in this article are weighted by the GSS variable WTSSNR. WTSSNR was recommended in lieu of McPherson et al. (2006) usage of WT2004NR (NORC, personal communication). For recommendations on weighting, please see http://publicdata.norc.org:41000/gssbeta/faqs.html.