The mathematician claims he has proved that the phenomenon of the “six degrees of separation” is real
- The path connecting two people is usually no more than six people
- People strive to connect with others who will later benefit them
- READ MORE: Google pulls the ‘Bacon Number’ right into its results pages
No matter who you are or where you’re from, you’re only six acquaintances away from knowing any person in the world.
The six degrees of separation have been ingrained in folklore since their first theory in 1967, but now a study claims to have confirmed the phenomenon.
People naturally strive for prominence on social networks and strategically select connections that place them in central positions. However, building new relationships can be tedious and costly, requiring them to constantly assess whether the cost is worth some social benefit
That’s what a team of international scientists claims This phenomenon was proven after realizing that the goal of most people is not to make many contacts, but to find the right ones.
The researchers took a game-theoretic approach, beginning with nodes A, B, C, and D, representing all the people who could choose to connect to neighbors outside of their networks each game round.
As they make new connections, people perform cost-benefit analysis in their minds, essentially determining who on those networks is important enough to connect and what benefit they would get from it.
The game ends when players have exhausted the connections they wish to make to improve their own social standing. This is where the concept of the “six degrees” comes into play.
dr Baruch Barzel, one of the paper’s lead authors, said: “When we did the math, we discovered an amazing result: this process always ends with social paths centered around the number six.
“Each individual acts independently without knowing the network as a whole, but this self-directed play shapes the structure of the entire network and leads to the phenomenon of the small world and the recurring pattern of the six degrees.”
The 14 researchers involved in the study stressed that they hail from Israel, Spain, Italy, Russia, Slovenia and Chile, but somehow found a way to experiment together.
dr Barzel said, “This collaboration is a great example of how six degrees can work in our favor.”
“How else could a team from six countries get together around the world?” That’s really six degrees in action!’
The idea of six degrees of separation was first voiced in a 1929 short story by Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy. However, the theory gained renewed attention when it was taken up in 1967 by social psychologist Stanley Milgram, who conducted what he termed a “little split.” world experiment.
Milgram provided people in Nebraska with letters to send to “targets” in Boston. If the Nebraskan 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 the target person in Boston.
This sets off a chain in which the letter is sent from one middleman to another until it finally reaches the destination.
On average, the letters had to be forwarded six or 6.2 times to reach the agent, and a new phrase was born.
However, his results were inconclusive as the experiment had several flaws. For example, people lost interest in the experiment or lost the envelopes they were supposed to mail.
The theory has since been tested many times by researchers as well as everyday Twitter and Facebook users. The theory also gained prominence in pop culture with the game Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, 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 Review X.