Newcomb Fraternity

Description

The Newcomb Fraternity Dataset

Background

These 15 matrices record weekly sociometric
preference rankings from 17 men attending
the University of Michigan in the fall of
1956; data from week 9 are missing. A "1"
indicates first preference, and no ties
were allowed.

The men were recruited to live in off-campus
(fraternity) housing, rented for them as part
of the Michigan Group Study Project supervised
by Theodore Newcomb from 1953 to 1956. All were
incoming transfer students with no prior
acquaintance of one another.

References

• Newcomb T. (1961). The acquaintance process.
  New York: Holt, Reinhard & Winston.
• Nordlie P. (1958). A longitudinal study of
  interpersonal attraction in a natural group setting.
  Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of
  Michigan.
• White H., Boorman S. and Breiger R. (1977).
  Social structure from multiple networks, I. Blockmodels
  of roles and positions. American Journal of Sociology, 81, 730-780.

History

Data originally made publicly available in UCINET.