Six Degrees of Separation

We all have said, "It is a small world, isn't it?", before when we meet someone who also knows a friend or acquaintance who we also know. Well, the world is a lot smaller than you think, and it has been fairly well substantiated. Barbara is the one who brought this to my attention, but once you are aware of it, you keep finding examples.

Supposedly, every person is connected to another by no more than four other people, or six degrees of separation. Theoretically, that means that A and B would know each other if A asked four people if they knew B. Some one of those four would be able to say yes. There is a similar theory in dictionary use. If a word researched has links to other words, then by following these links six times, one would be able to find any word that has links. The theory is that we all have a circle of acquaintances, and by each searching their database, overlaps will occur.

Now remember, this a hypothesis, not a guarantee. Of course it doesn't work every time, but it is uncanny how often it does. For instance, some years ago, I had a friend who was a retired teacher. We saw each other a few times in Georgia and each time he came to CH. I also knew two ladies who visited CH often and were retired teachers. Neither man or the two women knew each other. They both knew me. At a meeting of retired teachers in Georgia, they happened to meet and exchange information about their Swiss trips. Not only did they both know me, but they also knew my landlady here in CH.

One of my daughters has a position with Tennessee Economic Development. One of her favorite contacts is a man who I knew when in High School. He and I have not seen each other in fifty years, but he works at times with my daughter. She also works with two other people who I never met, but whose relatives were friends of mine or my parents.

We know a women here in Sachseln who would be called a mayor in the US. She has a sister who lives in San Francisco. A lady who visits Sachseln as a tourist was at a party in San Francisco and saw a woman in a particularly pretty sweater. She asked her where she had found this clothing. The lady told her it had been a gift from her sister in Sachseln, Switzerland (our "mayor"). I know both the US tourist and the "mayor".

Six Degrees of Separation was first popularized by a psychologist named Stanley Milgram who went about having people send letters and packages to people in other cities and tried to prove that we are interconnected by no more than six other people that we know. In other words, one person knows no more than six people who know you. Various efforts have been made to show this with results varying from 5 to 97%.

I took part in this study not long ago. It is being done at Columbia University. If you are interested go to

http://smallworld.columbia.edu/

I did not receive any results from query (so far).