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PreprintarXiv licencearXiv

The friendship paradox: Causal evidence of its behavioral consequences

  • Gary Charness
  • Francesco Feri
  • Matthew O. Jackson
  • Miguel A. Melendez-Jimenez
  • Matthias Sutter
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Abstract

We provide a first causal analysis of the behavioral consequences of the friendship paradox-the fact that people's friends in a network have more connections than average. We find that people's behavior is biased by their network position: they do not best respond to what they should infer the average behavior of the population to be (which determines their payoff), but instead best respond to the average behavior of their friends. In these games of complements, the friendship paradox generates a systematic upward distortion in actions and increases behavioral dispersion. These behavioral distortions persist despite learning opportunities: subjects fail to overcome the bias even when relocated within the network which should help them to understand how average population behavior can differ from local friend behavior.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{charness2026friendship,
  title = {{The friendship paradox: Causal evidence of its behavioral consequences}},
  author = {Gary Charness and Francesco Feri and Matthew O. Jackson and Miguel A. Melendez-Jimenez and Matthias Sutter},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2608.07819},
  eprint = {2608.07819},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.07819},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - The friendship paradox: Causal evidence of its behavioral consequences
AU  - Gary Charness
AU  - Francesco Feri
AU  - Matthew O. Jackson
AU  - Miguel A. Melendez-Jimenez
AU  - Matthias Sutter
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/20
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2608.07819
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2608.07819
AB  - We provide a first causal analysis of the behavioral consequences of the friendship paradox-the fact that people's friends in a network have more connections than average. We find that people's behavior is biased by their network position: they do not best respond to what they should infer the average behavior of the population to be (which determines their payoff), but instead best respond to the average behavior of their friends. In these games of complements, the friendship paradox generates a systematic upward distortion in actions and increases behavioral dispersion. These behavioral distortions persist despite learning opportunities: subjects fail to overcome the bias even when relocated within the network which should help them to understand how average population behavior can differ from local friend behavior.
ER  -