Chapter 1, Problem 1FDD

Critical Thinking

The concept of “six degrees of separation" grew from a 1967 study conducted by psychologist Stanley Milgram. His original finding was that two random residents in the United States are connected by an average of six intermediaries. In his first experiment, he sent 60 letters to subjects in Wichita, Kansas, and asked them to forward the letters to a specific woman in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The subjects were instructed to hand-deliver the letters to acquaintances who they believed could reach the target person either directly or through other acquaintances. Of the 60 subjects who were solicited,. 50 participated, and three of the letters reached the target. Two subsequent experiments also had low completion rates, but Milgram eventually reached a 35% completion rate, and he found that for completed chains, the mean number of intermediaries was around six. Consequently. Milgram’s original data led to the concept referred to as “six degrees of separation.”

Analyzing the Results

1. Did Stanley Milgram’s original experiment have a good design, or was it flawed? Explain.