Researchers have mathematically explained the “six degrees of separation” phenomenon, indicating that individuals in a network aim for strategic connections, balancing costs and benefits of these ties. The original experiment by Stanley Milgram in 1967 showed that in the vast American society, it took only around six connections to link two random people, a finding that has since been reaffirmed through various studies.
Researchers from Bar-Ilan University prove there are just six degrees of separation in a social network.
Do you know someone who knows someone? We’ve all delved into this thought experiment, marveling at the idea that in the vast web of humanity, random people can be linked through very small chains of acquaintances — typically, around six.
Recently, a group of researchers from across the globe discovered that this magic of six degrees can be explained mathematically. The intriguing phenomenon, they show, is linked to another social experience we all know too well — the struggle of cost vs. benefit in establishing new social ties.
In 1967, a farmer in Omaha, Nebraska received a peculiar letter in his mailbox. The sender was Prof. Stanley Milgram, of Harvard University, and the intended recipient was one of his peers. “If you happen to know this person,” the message read, “please forward this letter to him.”
Of course, the chances of such a direct acquaintance across such a vast social and geographical distance – from Boston to Omaha — were extremely slim, and therefore, the letter further requested that if the recipient didn’t know the intended addressee, they should forward the letter to someone who might.
This letter was one of about 300 identical packages sent with similar instructions. The 300 independent letters began circulating across the United States in pursuit of a social pathway linking “Joe” from the farmlands of middle America with the academic hub of the East Coast.
In 1967, a farmer in Omaha, Nebraska received a peculiar letter in his mailbox. The sender was Prof. Stanley Milgram, of Harvard University, and the intended recipient was one of his peers. “If you happen to know this person,” the message read, “please forward this letter to him.”
Of course, the chances of such a direct acquaintance across such a vast social and geographical distance – from Boston to Omaha — were extremely slim, and therefore, the letter further requested that if the recipient didn’t know the intended addressee, they should forward the letter to someone who might.
This letter was one of about 300 identical packages sent with similar instructions. The 300 independent letters began circulating across the United States in pursuit of a social pathway linking “Joe” from the farmlands of middle America with the academic hub of the East Coast.
Not all letters made it through, but the ones that did recorded, for the first time experimentally, the familiar social paths – a friend of a friend of a friend – that connect American society.
Quite surprisingly, the paths were found to be extremely short. In a society of hundreds of millions of individuals, the experiment found that it only takes about six handshakes to bridge between two random people. Indeed, Milgram’s experiment confirmed what many of us sense intuitively, that we live in a small world, divided by a mere six degrees of separation. READ MORE...
Quite surprisingly, the paths were found to be extremely short. In a society of hundreds of millions of individuals, the experiment found that it only takes about six handshakes to bridge between two random people. Indeed, Milgram’s experiment confirmed what many of us sense intuitively, that we live in a small world, divided by a mere six degrees of separation. READ MORE...
