Compare methods

	Structural Balance Theory	Homophily Analysis
Field	Sociology	Sociology
Family	Process / pipeline	Process / pipeline
Year of origin	1946 (Heider); 1956 (Cartwright & Harary)	1954 (concept); 2001 (synthesis)
Originator	Fritz Heider; formalized by Dorwin Cartwright & Frank Harary	Lazarsfeld & Merton (concept); McPherson, Smith-Lovin & Cook (synthesis)
Type	Theory and graph-theoretic test for tension in signed relationships	Measurement of similarity-based tie formation
Seminal source	Cartwright, D., & Harary, F. (1956). Structural balance: a generalization of Heider's theory. Psychological Review, 63(5), 277–293.	McPherson, M., Smith-Lovin, L., & Cook, J. M. (2001). Birds of a feather: homophily in social networks. Annual Review of Sociology, 27, 415–444.
Aliases	balance theory, Heider balance, signed network balance, structural balance analysis	homophily measurement, assortative mixing analysis, birds-of-a-feather analysis, tie-similarity analysis
Related	5	4
Summary	Structural balance theory analyzes networks whose ties carry a sign — positive for liking, alliance, or trust, negative for hostility or distrust — and asks which configurations are psychologically and socially stable. Originating in Fritz Heider's cognitive balance principle and given a graph-theoretic form by Dorwin Cartwright and Frank Harary in 1956, it predicts that signed networks evolve toward states free of the tension produced by inconsistent triads such as 'the friend of my enemy'.	Homophily analysis quantifies the tendency of similar individuals to form ties — the principle that 'birds of a feather flock together'. It compares the rate at which people connect with others who share an attribute (race, gender, age, education, attitudes) against what would be expected by chance, distinguishing the homophily that arises merely from group sizes from the genuine, behavior-driven preference for similar others.