Publication Date:
2003-08-09
Description:
We report on a global social-search experiment in which more than 60,000 e-mail users attempted to reach one of 18 target persons in 13 countries by forwarding messages to acquaintances. We find that successful social search is conducted primarily through intermediate to weak strength ties, does not require highly connected "hubs" to succeed, and, in contrast to unsuccessful social search, disproportionately relies on professional relationships. By accounting for the attrition of message chains, we estimate that social searches can reach their targets in a median of five to seven steps, depending on the separation of source and target, although small variations in chain lengths and participation rates generate large differences in target reachability. We conclude that although global social networks are, in principle, searchable, actual success depends sensitively on individual incentives.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Dodds, Peter Sheridan -- Muhamad, Roby -- Watts, Duncan J -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2003 Aug 8;301(5634):827-9.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Columbia University, 420 West 118th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12907800" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
*Electronic Mail
;
Family
;
Female
;
*Friends
;
Humans
;
Internet
;
*Interpersonal Relations
;
Male
;
Siblings
;
*Social Support
;
Work
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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