Comments on: It's A Small World After All

It's A Small World After All

jonp72 — Tue, 14 Jan 2003 20:03:11 -0800

Stanley Milgram invented the term "six degrees of separation" after discovering in an experiment how closely interconnected social networks can be. The "six degrees" concept also inspired a play, a film, and a party game. The original study has recently attracted criticism, but now sociologists at Columbia University are planning to re-do the study over the Internet, using e-mail forwarding. Volunteers can sign up here.

By: rudyfink

rudyfink — Tue, 14 Jan 2003 20:34:33 -0800

Linked gives one of the better histories of the degrees of seperation story I've run into.

By: WolfDaddy

WolfDaddy — Tue, 14 Jan 2003 20:43:31 -0800

My own Bacon number is 3, the lowest of any of my cronies, dubious distinction though it may be. But my Madonna number is 2. This illustrates the justice and order inherent in the universe.

By: solistrato

solistrato — Tue, 14 Jan 2003 20:46:25 -0800

Everything old is new again.

By: Salmonberry

Salmonberry — Tue, 14 Jan 2003 20:48:37 -0800

The Columbia project looks interesting - I've signed up!

By: pjdoland

pjdoland — Tue, 14 Jan 2003 20:59:12 -0800

I would rather they redo one of Milgram's other studies.

By: NortonDC

NortonDC — Tue, 14 Jan 2003 21:35:33 -0800

Got my copy of Obedience To Authority right here. The little fire of hatred for humanity it inspires keeps me warm at night. Exaggeration aside, I honestly believe that Milgram's Obedience Experiments (capitalization Well Fucking Earned) were not only the most important thing I learned in college, but the most important thing I possibly could have learned.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:03:44 -0800

My Bacon number is two as is my Madonna. So there. There is only cruelty and injustice inherent in the universe.

By: inpHilltr8r

inpHilltr8r — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 00:34:38 -0800

Hey wow, if I really reach for it, my Bacon number is two as well.

By: punilux

punilux — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 01:18:45 -0800

Well, nine'll certainly do it, as this fascinating article proves.

By: thanotopsis

thanotopsis — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 03:31:22 -0800

My Bacon number is two as is my Madonna. So there. There is only cruelty and injustice inherent in the universe. Oh yea? Well, my Dolly Parton number is 2.

By: gottabefunky

gottabefunky — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 07:14:36 -0800

Cool - sociology spam! I must have a Nigeria number of 0.26. But seriously, I'm fascinated by how important these degrees of connectedness are in everyday life - how our society really runs on ball bearings of personal connections, no matter how tenuous or arbitrary. This was driven home during my recent job hunt. The briefest introduction - just "I know this person, he's not a psycho" - opens all kinds of doors. (Or even, "Hey, I went to the same school as you did, can we talk?"). I kept wondering - why is that? This book opened my eyes to a lot of this - one of the more fascinating I've read in a long time. Guess I need to get out of my cave more.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 07:53:03 -0800

"Now" being a relative term; here's a NY Times article on it from December 2001.

By: adrober

adrober — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 08:23:34 -0800

Hey! Let's see if we're linked. Who do you guys know?

By: Vidiot

Vidiot — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 09:05:00 -0800

Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point (I know, not cool to bring up in this oh-so-hep BlogWorld, but it's just such a nifty book) has a really good examination of this -- there are certain people that he dubs Connectors that just simply know lots of people...thus allowing memes to flow freely: Sprinkled among every walk of life, in other words, are a handful of people with a truly extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances. They are Connectors.

By: m@

m@ — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 09:34:44 -0800

sociologists at Columbia University are planning to re-do the study over the Internet, using e-mail forwarding. Hasn't this already been done and Bill Gates sent each participant $16.32 for every e-mail they forwarded using his new e-mail tracing program?

By: gottabefunky

gottabefunky — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 09:43:20 -0800

Gladwell had me on the Connector thing until this: It makes sense...that upper-income professionals should know more people than lower-income immigrants. Why?

By: beagle

beagle — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 09:59:36 -0800

At this moment, the world population is estimated to be 6,268,640,827. If each person on earth knows, on average, only 43 people who each know at least 43 non-duplicated others, then 6 degrees is valid. (43 x 43 x 43 x 43 x 43 x 43 = 6,321,363,049.) This seems likely. It is true that there are many large and small affinity groups, in which people tend to know a lot of people in the group but not many outside the group, but there are also many "connectors" (people who know lots of people in lots of groups), as noted in some of the links. And most people, do know more than 43 others.

By: mdn

mdn — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 10:01:05 -0800

The connectors are definitely the prime factor. My sister had a best friend from the time she was about 2 until her early twenties; they drifted apart somewhat along the way, but my sister says that almost all of her other friends and acquaintances were people she met through this one woman, who does know an incredible number of people. I can think of a couple other people I know who tend to play this role - who are always waving to folks as you walk through town, or introducing you to people they know from random exchanges. That little connector's test [see vidiot's 3rd link] depresses me everytime. I'm going to blame my pathetic score on a bad memory for last names. (actually a bad memory could be a factor in a lower likelihood of retaining acquaintances & therefore having a wide social circle...).

By: mdn

mdn — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 10:09:46 -0800

It makes sense...that upper-income professionals should know more people than lower-income immigrants. why? because they'll fly to large conferences a couple times a year, they'll regularly see dozens of patients or clients or students, they'll speak to large crowds, some percentage of whom will approach them afterwards, and they'll attend many events and parties where they're likely to meet many other well connected people who will in turn introduce them to many more... etc. Lower income immigrants will spend much of their time working hard & taking care of the family. Even if they also see a large group of people in their line of work (say, behind the counter at a deli) they won't have exchanged names and contact information with those people, while the upper income ones will have. Anyway, the article says that though the average was higher, there was an extremely wide range in all groups, and there were student "connectors" who had higher scores than some of the professionals.

By: muckster

muckster — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 10:40:40 -0800

This experiment is interesting, except that "people I've ever known" and "people I have email addresses for and feel comfortable sending this to" are two vastly different things.

By: stuart_s

stuart_s — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 12:40:32 -0800

Six Degrees of Lois Weisberg More from Malcolm Gladwell on the subject. He points out, as mdn did, that some people are better connectors than others. Lois Weisberg, for instance. She introduced Arthur C. Clarke to Isaac Asimov and at one point or another knew everyone. Gladwell discusses some interesting details of the Milgram study and also mentions a study of the movie database that ranks actors by their average proximity to other actors and lots of other interesting stuff. Mostly it's interesting to read about this unassuming, gentle old woman and think of her as the wizard behind the curtain. Also, the Bacon of the math world is Paul Erdos, who from all I've read was another very pleasant, quirky person. He moved from university to university without ever holding official appointments and published extensively with a large, diverse group of mathematicians. Finally, these mefi threads point to interesting Bacon game sites.

By: Tubes

Tubes — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 12:49:25 -0800

Hm. Nobody's mentioned SixDegrees personal productivity software from Creo? Cool looking stuff.

By: dg

dg — Wed, 15 Jan 2003 14:35:43 -0800

This looks cool - I'm in! I only hope the final result isn't that I am completely unknown and totally insignificant :-)

By: beagle

beagle — Thu, 16 Jan 2003 07:43:35 -0800

I have registered twice and not gotten the promised e-mail back. Anyone else having this problem?

By: ParisParamus

ParisParamus — Thu, 16 Jan 2003 09:19:39 -0800

Milgram: the shock the subject guy, no?