Six Degrees Of Separation

Ever found out you were related to someone in a very weird construction, a friend of a friend, or the brother of your old best friend's girlfriend? Met someone abroad and found someone from your home town and thought "what a small world"? I've found a theory that took this matter to the next level. It's called "Six Degrees Of Separation":

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_degrees_of_separation

I didn't take it too serious at first, as some flaws popped up in my mind immediately. But then I've checked some of the research that was performed online.

Statistics taken from a facebook application!

Of course, the more people that took part in this, the more accurate this would get.

As you can see, it's close enough to 6. So need to take "6 steps" too seriously. It's mainly the idea behind the number that fascinates me.

What do you guys think of this? Total crap, or close enough to make an official theory?

 

Pretty interesting theory but you cannot make it official, since the results have been varied.

More evidence is needed.

 

It's a really cool idea buts its more of a half-myth right now.

 

It's probably quite close to the truth, but as JstarD said, more evidence is needed. Also, what happens if there's someone who doesn't socialise at all, etc.?

 

Logic tells me it's more of a half-myth indeed, but on the other hand...

I do like to believe there's too less information available atm to have a 100% valid answer on this. If everyone had Facebook, and everyone had their friends added, Facebook would be able to tell.

 

I can probably guess that this is only a "most likely" case scenario, where it will apply to most people but then there will be extremes (people being known through 1 person or people being known through 100 people). So it's not really a fact, it's just a high probability statement, kind of like saying someone doesn't have their heart on the right side of their body. Most cases it would be true, with the exception on extremes.

 

Good point. Those were the flaws I was thinking of aswell. Trying to connect two people with hardly any friends will involve much more steps. Or I wouldn't see how you'd be able to connect two people that were born and raised in tribes (I'm thinking of small African villages).

 

Yeah, I mean maybe you could take into the possibility of one tribe member HAPPENING to run into another tribe member. But making that assumption would be pretty much ridiculous and wouldn't really help the experiment.

 

Also known as the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, a popular parody of the concept.

Except this one has a website where you can test your connections (utilizes IMDB, if I remember correctly).

 

That's correct, Kevin Bacon had a movie or a television show around this concept. And the website is probably sixdegrees.org? That's founded by Kevin Bacon, rather unsure on what they do though.

 

I think it's real.
As an example, my friend's cousin was on Taylor Swift's brother's lacrosse team.

But I've been wondering, does the Six Degrees include me and someone else? Or are there six people in between me and someone else?

 

Was quite unsure myself at first, but after thinking logically, this is what I think would be this idea's maximum chain. Your first person being "Person A", your other person being "Person X"

Step 1: Person A to Friend 1 (must be friends of eachother)
Step 2: Friend 1 to Friend 2 (must be friends of eachother)
Step 3: Friend 2 to Friend 3 (must be friends of eachother)
Step 4: Friend 3 to Friend 4 (must be friends of eachother)
Step 5: Friend 4 to Friend 5 (must be friends of eachother)
Step 6: Friend 5 to Person X (must be friends of eachother)

Person A + Friend 1 + Friend 2 + Friend 3 + Friend 4 + Friend 5 + Person X makes a (maximum) chain of 7 people.

 

I have heard of this a few times myself. It is really interesting, and it definitely makes sense. I tried something on facebook where I found someone who lived across the world from me and i tried to get back to find someone i knew by clicking on their friends. I actually did it, but it took a while. Lol.

 

Wow intrested :O

 

Wrong on all counts, I believe.

The website is http://oracleofbacon.org
It has the bonus of allowing you to test the hypothesis with the names of random actors.

 

Ooh sweet, I'll have to try that.
Let's see how close me and Jessica Alba are...

 

Besides the fact that it only compares actors to actors, the website works over IMDB. So unless you've played in a movie... you won't be able to compare yourself to anyone.

You can easily compare Kevin Bacon and Jessica Alba though.

 

I actually have played in a movie, but it's not a big enough thing to be on IMDB. Darnn.

 

Yea. It would be awesome if there was a website that did the six degree thing for you based on Facebook friends or something.

 

We learned all about this in school here, its quite interesting all the famous people your less then 2 people away from. The presidents, goverment officials, rock stars, singers, authoers. You have no idea how close they actually are.