Rule of the sixth handshake. Does the rule of six handshakes work: my experiment
Surely many have heard about the theory of six handshakes. Some even call it a “rule”, however, quite rightly believing that the scheme really works. The essence of the theory boils down to the fact that any two people are connected by no more than six “handshakes”. Everything is like in Breaking Bad: a lawyer knows a guy who knows a guy who knows who is needed.
Life in its many manifestations has already managed to prove that the theory works. Therefore, it makes no sense to confirm it once again. In this material, I want to demonstrate how close we are to each other in general! It turns out, so much so that sometimes two handshakes are enough to contact the person you are looking for on another continent!
A bit of history...
The six handshake theory was formulated back in 1969 by American psychologists Stanley Milgram and Jeffrey Travers. Their hypothesis was about five levels of mutual acquaintances, but today we know this theory as the implementation of these levels in the form of six “handshakes”. By which, obviously, any informational connection is understood: a request, a request, and anything in general, just to get “access” to the desired link in the chain.
In their results, the researchers proceeded from the data of the experiment, during which 60 out of 300 envelopes distributed to participants reached unfamiliar addressees in another city. Moreover, each envelope that reached the goal passed through five people. Therefore, the theory was called "six handshakes". But it is obvious that in the modern world the number of mutual acquaintances is up to right person may be significantly smaller. Especially in connection with our private public in terms of social networks.
… theories
With the advent of social networks, by the way, a new round of research into the interconnectedness of people in the world has become possible. In 2011, scientists from the University of Milan conducted a study based on Facebook and found that users of the network are separated from each other by an average of 4.74 levels of communication. That is, the theory of six handshakes was not only proved mathematically (thus becoming the rule, at least for Facebook), but also showed that it takes a little less than 6 handshakes to connect two people on the planet.
…and practices
Another interesting fact is that the search for people in social networks, as a rule, is configured in such a way as to show the people closest to us. We are talking, for example, about showing the friends of a randomly selected user: among the first people with whom you personally know the most will be shown. This algorithm brought to life a new entertainment that allows you to see in practice the rule of six handshakes in action. Surely many of you have already heard about this “game”, for the rest I will list the necessary steps.
1. Search for any person who is not your friend. First and last name can be arbitrary. You can also click on the avatar of any random user. Or choose the candidate you like by filtering by city or country.
2. Go to the list of friends of the selected "victim". Common friends you have with this person may already be highlighted at this stage, and in this case, the number of handshakes between you is equal to one through any mutual acquaintance. If this does not happen, go to the page of the first (topmost) in the friend list.
3. Go to the page of the first friend each time until you see mutual friends. As a rule, this will happen much faster than after five transitions through acquaintances of acquaintances. Just count the number of steps, and exactly so many “handshakes” separate you from the initially selected person.
You will probably be amazed at how quickly common acquaintances will appear between you and a random social network user from Vladivostok, or Yekaterinburg, or Switzerland, or Australia - it doesn’t matter! Having learned about this “game”, I got so used to the “quick” result that I got fed up after a few “games”. Until, finally, I realized that you need to look for common acquaintances not for unknown, random people, but for celebrities! So I decided to calculate how many handshakes separate me from Putin!
Medvedev+1
Yes, at least one handshake from
And Geoffrey Travers Jeffrey Travers). The hypothesis they proposed was that each person is indirectly acquainted with any other inhabitant of the planet through a chain of mutual acquaintances, on average, consisting of five people.
By the way, on the basis of the "small world" theory, many popular games in the USA have also arisen. For example, scientists play Erdős Number. The Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős is one of the major scientists of the 20th century, having a huge number of co-authored works. You need to find the shortest chain from him to another famous scientist. If he wrote some work together with Erdős, then his Erdős number is equal to one. If in co-authorship with someone who, in turn, wrote something with Paul Erdős, then this number is two, and so on. Almost all Nobel laureates have small Erdős numbers.
In the social network VKontakte, the application ("Chain of friends - the theory of six handshakes") allows you to search for chains of acquaintances between network users. Since the audience of VKontakte is limited (Russia and the CIS countries), it is not possible to achieve the same results as described above - the chains are shorter (3-4 people). However, it is interesting that chains longer than 6 people practically do not occur, which indirectly confirms the original theory.
Perhaps the rule of "six handshakes" appeared in 1929 in the story of the Hungarian science fiction writer Fridesh Karinthy "Links of the chain." Here it was proposed to prove experimentally "that the inhabitants of the Earth are now much closer to each other than ever before." It was necessary to choose any person from 1.5 billion (at that time) inhabitants of the Earth, and he, using no more than five people, each of whom is a personal acquaintance of the other, must contact any other person on Earth.
The theory is also illustrated in the films Love Actually (2003), Christmas Trees (2010), as well as in the TV series Friends (season 3, episode 16).
Also, the theory of six handshakes was mentioned in the anime: The Mysterious Library of Dantalian / Dantalian no Shoka, in the 03.series-Book of Wisdom at the 15th minute.
Notes
Links
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .
- Chaos Theory (film)
- Economic Growth Theory
See what the "Theory of Six Handshakes" is in other dictionaries:
Six handshakes- The six handshake theory is a theory according to which any two people on Earth are separated by only six levels of common acquaintances. The theory was put forward in 1969 by psychologists Stanley Milgram and Jeffrey Travers. See also ... ... Wikipedia
small world- The Small World Experiment is a series of experiments conducted in the United States by the American sociologist Milgram Stanley in 1967. The purpose of the experiment is to search and analyze the average length ... ... Wikipedia
List of 4isla episodes- Numb3rs is a detective television series created by Nicholas Falacci and Cheryl Houghton. The premiere of the television series took place on January 23, 2005, on May 18, 2010, CBS closed the series ... Wikipedia
Milgram, Stanley- Stanley Milgram Stanley Milgram Birth Name: Stanley Milgram Occupation: Social Psychologist ... Wikipedia
Christmas trees- Genre comedy Director ... Wikipedia
Erdős number- (eng. Erdős number) a comic method for determining the shortest path from any scientist to the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős according to joint scientific publications. Erdős wrote 1475 articles in his life, and many of these works were ... ... Wikipedia
Small world (experiment)- The "Small World" Six Handshake Theory is a practical experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram to find out the average social media path length for people living in America. During the experiment, it was possible to find out that any two ... Wikipedia
Perkins, Oz- Wikipedia has articles about other people with that last name, see Perkins. Oz Perkins Oz Perkins ... Wikipedia
Tipping Point (book)- Tipping Point: How Little Changes Make Big Differences The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference Genre: Nonfiction
milgram- Milgram, Stanley Stanley Milgram (Milgram) (Eng. Stanley Milgram; August 15, 1933, NY December 20, 1984, New York) is an American social psychologist, known for his experiment on obedience to authority and research on the phenomenon ... ... Wikipedia
Books
- The Six Handshake Theory, Craig Brown. Do you know the theory of "six handshakes"? It states that every person knows every other inhabitant of the planet through a chain of mutual acquaintances, on average, consisting of six handshakes. ...
Greetings to my dear readers and subscribers! Today I decided to take a little break from purely financial publications and relax my brain.
In the world there are a huge number of interesting theories, studies, teachings. Take, for example, the rule of six handshakes - have you ever heard of it?
At one time, it struck me with its simplicity and indisputability. I read several materials on this topic, and then I decided to check how it works myself. But let's talk about everything in order.
Each of us knows the saying “how small the world is”, which says that in the most remote places you can meet your former colleague, classmate and just an acquaintance. But, at first glance, this is an ordinary coincidence, and nothing more. But there is an evidence base that suggests that we are familiar with any person living on our planet through a chain of no more than 5 acquaintances.
First, this theory gained fame at the beginning of the 20th century, after the publication of the story “Links of the Chain”, written by the Hungarian writer F. Karinti. In it, he demonstrated in a playful way that each of us can be familiar with absolutely any other person, regardless of whether he is a famous person or an ordinary individual.
In subsequent years, many scientists and amateurs have repeatedly set up experiments to confirm or refute this rule. For example, residents of American cities were given the task of using this system to find a person from another city whose mailing address was unknown to the participants. Each of them wrote a letter, which was then passed on to some acquaintance, and so on.
The chain was tracked, because all participants added their contact details. All the experiments that were carried out at that time and much later proved that the hypothesis was absolutely correct.
Confirmation of the “6 handshakes” rule with modern technologies
Further - more: with the development of technology, scientists were able to calculate this algorithm mathematically. One of the large-scale studies was carried out on a grand scale in 2006 by employees Microsoft. They processed billions of messages sent by users within a month. It turned out that the average distance between 2 users was 6.6.
As soon as the Internet became a widespread phenomenon, the principle of accessibility of any user became even more obvious and easily proven, thanks to VK, FaceBook, LiveJournal and other resources that unite people from various remote corners of the globe.
Today, there are even services that help establish a chain from one user to another. The possibilities of global communication are being explored by a variety of networking projects and applications.
How to test a hypothesis in social networks
This theory is not as easy to understand as it might seem at first glance. But social networks, for example, VKontakte, will clearly help to demonstrate it. In any case, the following algorithm helped me personally:
- We select in the search for people any person you do not know (for this, enter the name and surname that come to mind)
- From the drop-down list of candidates, you can, without hesitation, choose the one who lives in another city, and even better in another country
- We go to his page, to his list of friends and select the first one on the list
- Now we visit the page of this first one on the list and look at his friends, and again select the very first
- We repeat this operation up to 5-6 times. But personally, I already found my acquaintances on the 3rd person
Thus, the rule shows that I was acquainted with a girl who lives thousands of kilometers away from me and whom I have never heard anything about, through an indirect chain of my acquaintances.
Pros and cons of the 6 handshake idea
Are there any limitations to this seemingly sinless theory? Of course, since a few centuries ago humanity was not so monolithic and did not have such opportunities for movement.
In fact, the 6 handshake rule does not automatically mean that each of us can be familiar with the Queen of England or the Sultan of Brunei. People tend to form communities according to some limited characteristics, for example, by age, by thematic interests, and so on. The boundaries of each circle of acquaintances are detected after 2-3 levels.
The idea, which is similar to the hypothesis of 6 handshakes, is revealed by the kind and touching film "Christmas Trees". In it, the action takes place in various Russian cities, each of which is in its own time zone. People along the chain convey the request of the child, who can be personally helped by the president, but no one knows him personally.
That's such an interesting rule, friends, we met today, and the progress that accompanies us only confirms it. People are becoming more and more communicative thanks to social networks, online conferences and other ways and mechanisms of communication. Subscribe to blog updates, and we will continue to discuss useful and exciting events. Bye!
And Geoffrey Travers Jeffrey Travers). The hypothesis they proposed was that each person is indirectly acquainted with any other inhabitant of the planet through a chain of mutual acquaintances, on average, consisting of five people.
By the way, on the basis of the "small world" theory, many popular games in the USA have also arisen. For example, scientists play Erdős Number. The Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős is one of the major scientists of the 20th century, having a huge number of co-authored works. You need to find the shortest chain from him to another famous scientist. If he wrote some work together with Erdős, then his Erdős number is equal to one. If in co-authorship with someone who, in turn, wrote something with Paul Erdős, then this number is two, and so on. Almost all Nobel laureates have small Erdős numbers.
In the social network VKontakte, the application ("Chain of friends - the theory of six handshakes") allows you to search for chains of acquaintances between network users. Since the audience of VKontakte is limited (Russia and the CIS countries), it is not possible to achieve the same results as described above - the chains are shorter (3-4 people). However, it is interesting that chains longer than 6 people practically do not occur, which indirectly confirms the original theory.
Perhaps the rule of "six handshakes" appeared in 1929 in the story of the Hungarian science fiction writer Fridesh Karinthy "Links of the chain." Here it was proposed to prove experimentally "that the inhabitants of the Earth are now much closer to each other than ever before." It was necessary to choose any person from 1.5 billion (at that time) inhabitants of the Earth, and he, using no more than five people, each of whom is a personal acquaintance of the other, must contact any other person on Earth.
The theory is also illustrated in the films Love Actually (2003), Christmas Trees (2010), as well as in the TV series Friends (season 3, episode 16).
Also, the theory of six handshakes was mentioned in the anime: The Mysterious Library of Dantalian / Dantalian no Shoka, in the 03.series-Book of Wisdom at the 15th minute.
Notes
Links
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .
See what the "Theory of Six Handshakes" is in other dictionaries:
The six handshake theory is the theory that any two people on Earth are separated by only six levels of mutual acquaintances. The theory was put forward in 1969 by psychologists Stanley Milgram and Jeffrey Travers. See also ... ... Wikipedia
The Small World Experiment is a series of experiments conducted in the United States by the American sociologist Milgram Stanley in 1967. The purpose of the experiment is to search and analyze the average length ... ... Wikipedia
- Numb3rs is a detective television series created by Nicholas Falacci and Cheryl Houghton. The premiere of the television series took place on January 23, 2005, on May 18, 2010, CBS closed the series ... Wikipedia
Stanley Milgram Stanley Milgram Birth Name: Stanley Milgram Occupation: Social Psychologist ... Wikipedia
Genre Comedy Director ... Wikipedia
- (eng. Erdős number) a comic method for determining the shortest path from any scientist to the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős according to joint scientific publications. Erdős wrote 1475 articles in his life, and many of these works were ... ... Wikipedia
The Six Handshake Theory "Small World" is a practical experiment conducted by Stanley Milgram to find out the average length of a path in social networks for people living in America. During the experiment, it was possible to find out that any two ... Wikipedia
Wikipedia has articles on other people with this last name, see Perkins. Oz Perkins Oz Perkins ... Wikipedia
Tipping Point: How Little Changes Make Big Differences The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference Genre: Nonfiction
Milgram, Stanley Stanley Milgram (Milgram) (eng. Stanley Milgram; August 15, 1933, New York December 20, 1984, New York) is an American social psychologist, known for his experiment of obedience to authority and research on the phenomenon ... ... Wikipedia
Books
- The Six Handshake Theory, Craig Brown. Do you know the theory of "six handshakes"? It states that every person knows every other inhabitant of the planet through a chain of mutual acquaintances, on average, consisting of six handshakes. ...
just like in that movie.
There is a theory according to which any two people on Earth are separated on average by only five levels of common acquaintances (and, accordingly, six levels of connections).
The theory was put forward in 1969 by American psychologists Stanley Milgram and Jeffrey Travers. The hypothesis they proposed was that each person is indirectly acquainted with any other inhabitant of the planet through a chain of mutual acquaintances, on average, consisting of five people.
Milgram relied on data from an experiment in two American cities.
Residents of one city were given 300 envelopes, which had to be given to a specific person living in another city. Envelopes could be transferred only through their acquaintances and relatives. 60 envelopes reached the Boston addressee. After doing the calculations, Milgram determined that, on average, each envelope passed through five people. And so the theory of "six handshakes" was born.
Milgram's experiment was replicated by scientists in the Department of Sociology at Columbia University using email. Thousands of volunteers, they offered to "get through" to 20 classified people, who reported the name, surname, occupation, place of residence, education. The first successful attempt was to define postal address one of these "secret" in Siberia. A volunteer from Australia found the address of the Siberian "target" with just four messages.
Analysis by Microsoft experts of the data received during the month of communication of 242,720,596 users took two years. The volume of the studied data was about 4.5 TB. On this database, it was found that each of the 240 million users of the service could "walk" to another in an average of 6.6 "steps". How the researchers mathematically proved the theory and the common joke that after five people each of us is familiar with the Queen of England.
The University of Milan and the social network Facebook also conducted a joint study of the theory of six handshakes, based on data from the Facebook social graph. It was found that any two Facebook users separates 4.74 link levels. For the US, the number of links was 4.37.
By the way, on the basis of the "small world" theory, many popular games in the United States arose. For example, scientists play Erdős Number. The Hungarian mathematician Pal Erdős is one of the major scientists of the 20th century, having a huge number of co-authored works. You need to find the shortest chain from him to another famous scientist. If he wrote some work together with Erdős, then his Erdős number is equal to one. If in collaboration with someone who, in turn, wrote something with Pal Erdős, then this number is two, and so on. Almost all Nobel laureates have small Erdős numbers.
In the social network VKontakte, the application ("Chain of friends - the theory of six handshakes") allows you to search for chains of acquaintances between network users. Since the audience of VKontakte is limited (Russia and the CIS countries), it is not possible to achieve the same results as described above - the chains are shorter (3-4 people). However, it is interesting that chains longer than 6 people practically do not occur, which indirectly confirms the original theory.
Perhaps the rule of "six handshakes" appeared in 1929 in the story of the Hungarian science fiction writer Fridesh Karinthy "Links of the chain." Here it was proposed to prove experimentally "that the inhabitants of the Earth are now much closer to each other than ever before." It was necessary to choose any person from 1.5 billion (at that time) inhabitants of the Earth, and he, using no more than five people, each of whom is a personal acquaintance of the other, must contact any other person on Earth.
