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An Experimental Study of the Small World Problem
Abstract
Arbitrarily selected individuals (N=296) in Nebraska and Boston are asked to generate acquaintance chains to a target person in Massachusetts, employing “the small world method” (Milgram, 1967). Sixty-four chains reach the target person. Within this group the mean number of intermediaries between starters and targets is 5.2. Boston starting chains reach the target person with fewer intermediaries than those starting in Nebraska; subpopulations in the Nebraska group do not differ among themselves. The funneling of chains through sociometric “stars” is noted, with 48 per cent of the chains passing through three persons before reaching the target. Applications of the method to studies of large scale social structure are discussed.
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Citations
Cited by
Granovetter, M. S. (1973) · American Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1086/225469 · Cited by 40,491
The Structure and Function of Complex Networks
Newman, M. E. J. (2003) · SIAM Review · doi:10.1137/s003614450342480 · Cited by 18,719
Fortunato, S. (2010) · Physics Reports · doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2009.11.002 · Cited by 11,293
Complex networks: structure and dynamics
BOCCALETTI, S., LATORA, V, MORENO, Y., CHAVEZ, M., & HWANG, D. (2006) · Physics Reports · doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2005.10.009 · Cited by 11,010
Structural Holes and Good Ideas
Burt, R. S. (2004) · American Journal of Sociology · doi:10.1086/421787 · Cited by 5,642
Metadata
- Authors
- Travers, J., & Milgram, S.
- Venue
- Sociometry
- Publisher
- JSTOR
- Published
- 1969-12
- Volume
- 32
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 425
- ISSN
- 0038-0431 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2795857897
- Cited by
- 1,863
- References
- 0
- FWCI
- 7.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
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