It takes two shining lights to brighten the room: peer effects with random roommate assignments

Zhang, Liang; Pu, Shi

doi:10.1080/09645292.2016.1203867

Cited by 5 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…In some specifications, group-level peer effects that are small and marginally significant when roomlevel clustering is used become insignificant due to larger standard errors when using group-and building-level clustering; however, they do not change the main results of this study. We also conducted separate analyses by gender because social psychology theories suggest that peer effects could be more prominent among female students than among male students (Minton & Schneider, 1980), as evidenced by recent studies on peer effects among college students (e.g., Han & Li, 2009;Zhang & Pu, 2017).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Because studies on peer effects typically yield significant nonlinear effects (Sacerdote, 2014;Zhang & Pu, 2017), we relaxed the assumption of linear relationships by adding quadratic and higher-order terms to the models in Table 4. Because room and social group sizes did not vary much (e.g., more than 90% of the rooms were quadruples), we used the number of same-major peers instead of the proportion of same-major peers to facilitate interpretation.…”

Section: Peer Effects On Switching Majorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Do Peers Affect Undergraduates’ Decisions to Switch Majors?

Pu¹,

Zhang³

2021

Educational Researcher

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In this study, dormitory room and social group assignment data from a college are used to investigate peer effects on college students’ decisions to switch majors. Results reveal strong evidence of such peer effects at both the room and the social group level. Most notably, at the room level, the dense concentration of same-major roommates deters students from switching majors; having one or two same-major roommates has no significant effect on major switching, indicating strong nonlinearity of peer effects at the room level. Such nonlinearity is not observed among social group members. Results also reveal evidence that students’ choices of new majors are affected by peers’ majors. Peers are more likely to choose the same destination majors than nonpeers. In choosing their new majors, students do not necessarily follow their peers indiscriminately. Their decisions seem to be influenced more by short-term academic requirements than by long-term job prospects. Finally, peer effects on major switching and major choices are stronger at the dormitory room level than at the social group level in most cases.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Peer Effects On Switching Majorsmentioning

confidence: 99%