Published in PNAS Nexus, 2025
To what extent do individuals prefer social settings whether others have similar sociodemographic characteristics as themselves?
Citation: Dederichs, K., Franken, R., Wiertz, D., and Tolsma, J. (2025). "Ingroup preferences, segregation, and intergroup contact in neighborhoods and civic organizations" PNAS Nexus. 4(9), pgaf256.
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Published in Sociological Forum, 2024
We investigate the impact of ego-alter dissimilarity on the stability of friendships, confidant, and study and sport relations, while acknowledging multiplexity – the phenomenon where the same alter serves multiple roles.
Citation: Franken, R., Bekhuis, H., and Tolsma, J. (2024). "The unstable social networks of students: Where does dissimilarity drive tie dissolution?" Sociological Forum. 40(1), 95-118.
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Published in Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 2024
Who do we choose to start and keep exercising with? We tackled this question by combining ego-network data with discrete choice experiments.
Citation: Franken, R., Bekhuis, H., and Tolsma, J. (2024). "Choosing your sports partners: Assessing selection preferences through observational and experimental studies" Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport. 96(2), 233-247.
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Published in Social Networks, 2023
We used Strava’s big data to investigate influence dynamics among athletes in online social networks!
Citation: Franken, R., Bekhuis, H., and Tolsma, J. (2023). "Kudos make you run! How runners influence each other on the online social network Strava." Social Networks. 72, 151-164.
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Published in Frontiers in Sports and Active Living, 2022
First-time participants in the Dutch “Seven Hills Run” demonstrate significantly greater success when they run together with sports partners during their event preparation!
Citation: Franken, R., Bekhuis, H., and Tolsma, J. (2022). "Running Together: How Sports Partners Keep You Running." Frontiers in Sports and Active Living. 4, 643150.
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Published in The Gerontologist, 2019
As cognitive decline progresses and the necessity for nursing home placement becomes more apparent, the involvement of persons with dementia (PWDs) in the decision-making about housing and care relocation tends to diminish …
Citation: Garvelink, M.M., Groen-van de Ven, L., Smits, C., Franken, R., Dassen-Vernooij, M., and Légaré, F. (2019). "Shared Decision Making About Housing Transitions for Persons With Dementia: A Four-Case Care Network Perspective." The Gerontologist. 59(5), 822-834.
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Published in Sociale Vraagstukken, 2023
We investigated how people influence each other in online sports networks. We share our findings and provide insights for creating policies aimed at promoting sustained sports participation and physical activity.
Citation: Franken, R., Bekhuis, H., and Tolsma, J. (2023). "Promoting sustained sports participation through online social networks - Does it work?" Sociale Vraagstukken.
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Published in Stuk Rood Vlees, 2022
Dutch Minister of Justice and Security Dilan Yesilgöz slammed the woke movement as a threat to the democratic state. Our research shows that a significant group of university students do not agree with her. Opinions about ‘wokeism’ reveal a high level of polarization. However, the real danger to democracy is that students have very limited interest in politics!
Citation: Franken, R., and Tolsma, J. (2022). "Do students consider wokeism a threat to democracy?" Stuk Rood Vlees.
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Published in The Open Science Framework, 2024
Citation: Dederichs, K., Franken, R., Wiertz, D., and Tolsma, J. (2023). "The bridging power of civic organizations and neighborhoods." OSF.
Published in The Open Science Framework, 2023
Citation: Dederichs, K., Franken, R., Wiertz, D., and Tolsma, J. (2023). "The bridging power of sports clubs." OSF.