Human Behavior and Stochastic Models
Gustav N. Kristensen

Abstract
In a random system “groups” will form accidentally, and their distribution functions can be described as mathematical idealizations. Nature, including social relations, deviates from the idealized model. This article thus discusses empirical group formation as a deviation from random group formation. The article can thereby in principle reveal “false” grouping. The applied case is group formation in a canteen. The group formation is investigated based on nine sets of observations of students dining in the canteen, in total 526 individuals. The article combines the use of a transformed geometric distribution as well as the binomial distribution as a benchmark for measuring the empirical group formation. An index for measuring the degree of gender segregation is developed.

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