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- The path that connects two people usually does not exceed six people
- People strive to make connections with others that will benefit them later
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It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from, you are only six acquaintances away from knowing any random person in the world.
The six degrees of separation have been enshrined in folklore since it was first theorized in 1967, but now a study claims to have confirmed the phenomenon.
Humans naturally seek prominence in social networks and strategically choose connections that place them in central positions. But establishing new relationships can be difficult and come at a cost, so they must continually determine whether the cost is worth a certain amount of social benefit.
A team of international scientists claims so This phenomenon has been proven after establishing that the goal of most people is not to make many connections, but to get the right connections.
The researchers took a game-theoretic approach that started with nodes A, B, C, and D, all of which represent people who could choose to connect with neighbors outside their network on each round of play.
As they make new connections, people run cost-benefit analyzes in their heads, essentially determining who within those networks is important enough to connect to and how they themselves would benefit.
The game ends when people in the game have exhausted the connections they want to make to increase their own social status. This is where the concept of “six degrees” comes in handy.
Dr. Baruch Barzel, one of the paper’s lead authors, said:When we did the calculations, we discovered an amazing result: this process always ends with social paths around the number six.
“Each individual acts independently without knowing the network as a whole, yet this self-directed play forms the structure of the entire network, leading to the small world phenomenon and the recurring pattern of six degrees.”
The 14 researchers involved in the study emphasized that they come from Israel, Spain, Italy, Russia, Slovenia and Chile, yet somehow found their way together to experiment.
Dr. Barzel said: ‘This partnership is a good example of how six degrees can play to our advantage.
“How else would a team from six countries around the world come together? This really is six degrees in action!’
The idea of six degrees of separation was first put forward in a short story written by Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy in 1929. But the theory gained renewed attention when it was picked up in 1967 by social psychologist Stanley Milgram, who was researching what he called the small world experiment.
Milgram provided people in Nebraska with letters to send to “target” people in Boston. If the Nebraska knew the Bostonian, the letter would be sent directly.
But in most cases, the starting person would send the letter to a person in Massachusetts who they think might know that target person in Boston.
This creates a chain of sending the letter from one intermediary to another, until it finally reaches the intended person.
The average number of times the letters had to be passed around to reach the broker was six or 6.2, and a new sentence was born.
However, his findings were inconclusive, as the experiment had several shortcomings. For example, people became disinterested in the experiment or lost the envelopes they were supposed to send.
The theory has since been tested many times by both researchers and the everyday Twitter and Facebook user. The theory has also gained prominence in pop culture with Kevin Bacon’s game Six Degrees, which is based on the idea that every actor in Hollywood is connected to him.
The team’s findings were published in the journal Physical assessment X .