Friendship Networks and Political Opinions

Yann Algan, Nicolò Dalvit, Quoc-Anh Do, Alexis Le Chapelain and Yves Zenou

American Economic Review, 2026, vol. 116, issue 6, 2202-41

Abstract: We examine how social interactions and friendships shape students' political opinions in a natural experiment at Sciences Po, a leading French university specializing in social and political sciences. The quasi-random assignment of students into short-term integration groups before their academic curriculum reduces political opinion gaps and fosters friendship formation. Using same-group membership as an instrumental variable for friendship, we find that friendship reduces opinion differences by 44 percent of the mean opinion gap. Our evidence supports a homophily-enforced mechanism: Friendships form among initially politically similar students, leading them to join political associations together, reinforcing their similarity.

JEL-codes: C93 D72 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
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Related works:
Working Paper: Friendship Networks and Political Opinions (2025)
Working Paper: Friendship Networks and Political Opinions (2025)
Working Paper: Friendship Networks and Political Opinions (2025)
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DOI: 10.1257/aer.20231344

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