People share values with those close to them in their social network rather than with those close in physical space.

The claim is that people share values with those close to them in their social network rather than with those close in physical space. Judge it against research as of 2021-11-11. True: studies (homophily research, online-network or polarisation studies) show that closeness in the social network predicts shared values more strongly than physical proximity, broadly and consistently. Mostly true: network proximity is generally the stronger predictor, though geography still matters notably. Mixed: the evidence shows both matter comparably, or results vary by context. Mostly false: network homophily is real but research shows geographic proximity remains an equally or more important predictor of shared values, so 'rather than' overstates it; or the claim is unproven rather than established. False: research clearly shows physical proximity predicts shared values better and network proximity does not.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 The geographic embedding of online echo chambers: Evidence from the Brexit campaign PMC (peer-reviewed journal article; journal not named on the fetched page) · 2 November 2018

   “More specifically, our results reveal that echo chambers in the Leave campaign are associated with geographic proximity and that the reverse relationship holds true for the Remain campaign.”

2. E2 The Role of Space in the Formation of Social Ties Annual Review of Sociology (Mario L. Small and Laura Adler, Harvard University) · 2019

   “Spatial factors will generally matter less to network processes to the extent that the domain in question increasingly involves online social interaction.”

3. E3 The Determinants of Social Connectedness in Europe PMC (Facebook-friendship-based study of European regions; authors Bailey, Kuchler, Stroebel and co-authors) · 7 October 2020

   “We find that social connectedness strongly declines in geographic distance: a 10% increase in distance is associated with a 13% decline in social connectedness.”

4. E4 The effect of politically homogenous neighbourhoods on affective polarization: Evidence from Britain European Journal of Political Research (Tilley & Hobolt; LSE Research Online repository) · 2025

   “neighbourhood political homogeneity is not correlated with any measure of affective polarization.”

The pre-2021 research given does not show that closeness in a social network predicts shared values better than physical closeness. A study of online echo chambers in the Brexit campaign found they were tied to geography: associated with geographic proximity for Leave, and the reverse for Remain (E1). Facebook data show that social ties themselves drop off sharply with distance, so network closeness and physical closeness overlap rather than compete (E3). A review says space matters less as interaction moves online (E2), which partly supports the claim but does not show network closeness replacing geography. So "rather than" overstates the case, and the claim looks unproven rather than established as of 2021-11-11.