What did the small world study show?
What did the small world study show?
Stanley Milgram's groundbreaking work in the 1960s established the idea that we are all connected by short chains of acquaintances, that everyone on the planet can be connected through a small network of social interactions or intermediaries. The experiment's aim was to find short chains of associations connecting pairs of people in the United States who had never met before.
Stanley Milgram pioneered the idea of six degrees of separation through his studies. A few hundred people from Boston and Omaha participated in his experiments, attempting to send a letter to a random individual in Boston. However, they were only able to deliver the letter to a personal friend they believed was closer to the mark/ target than they were. As Milgram examined the letters that made it to the intended recipient, he discovered that they had only changed ownership about six times.
This discovery has since been enshrined in the idea that anyone can be linked by a six-link chain of acquaintances. The word "small world" refers to social networks that are tightly woven, with unexpected threads linking people that appear to be physically or socially apart.
Step by step
Solved in 3 steps
