It seems that birds of a feather do flock together. A new study by members of Harvard’s Sociology Department and a UCLA sociology professor using Facebook to analyze the social habits of undergraduates shows fairly homogenous friend networks among college students.

The research team, which includes three sociology professors and two Harvard graduate students, is trying to better understand how students form social ties and whether factors such as race, gender, or personal interests affect relationship formation. The project was initiated in March 2006 and is slotted to continue until 2009.

According to the study thus far, race and gender appear to have an influence on social networks. African-American students tend to have the largest social networks, followed by students of mixed race. White students have the lowest number of Facebook friends, and women are more inclined to have a more diverse social network than males.

Additionally, data collected thus far shows that white students tend to have more racially homogenous Facebook networks, a finding that coincides with the accepted phenomenon of social homopholy — the idea that “birds of a feather flock together.”

“It is kind of amazing that it shows up here [on Facebook] as well. Maybe it is an indication that these aren’t just virtual ties,” Kevin M. Lewis, a third-year Ph.D candidate working on the project, said.

The subject pool for the research is the class of 2009 at an undisclosed American college, according to Lewis. He said that the university has a racially diverse student population and a roughly equal number of males and females. …