Aggregation mechanism for multidimensional identity preferences

Identify the aggregation mechanism by which individuals integrate one-dimensional latent preferences across multiple identity dimensions into an overall tie-formation probability, discriminating among candidate rules such as weighted averaging, independent conjunctive evaluation (product/AND), or disjunctive evaluation (OR).

Background

There is limited systematic evidence on how people combine preferences across multiple identity dimensions when deciding to form social ties. Crossed-categorization studies suggest additive combination, while common network models implicitly assume multiplicative aggregation, but the underlying behavioral mechanism remains contested.

The authors formalize several candidate aggregation functions and compare them empirically using Bayesian model selection. The quoted sentence states the long-standing open question motivating this comparison.