Why we are six contacts (or less) away from anyone in the world, according to some scientific theories

Imagine that you want to get in touch with your favorite artist who lives on the other side of the world, to say how much you admire him. And who needs to contact you using a network of five people, starting with someone you already know. According to one theory, this is possible.

O awesome.club he was curious to know what this theory is and discovered other studies that tried to prove it, including one from Facebook. Read to the end as there is a bonus specially made for you.

The theory of the six degrees of separation spreads the idea that anyone in the world can relate to anyone else, no matter where on the planet, following a chain of six steps or connections with five people acting as intermediaries. In this way, all inhabitants of Earth would be interconnected.

This idea arose in 1929, in the publication of the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy called Chains. In this story, the characters create an experimental game to prove that the human population was much closer than previously thought.

The theory, of course, echoed in the scientific world, since we all have a certain number of acquaintances, who have many more. This number of interconnections grows continuously, enabling contacts in common with an objective subject. And, in fact, several people interested in the topic have tried to prove that, in fact, it is possible to contact anyone in six connections.

In 1967, psychologist Stanley Milgram and his collaborators carried out a series of experiments with the aim of discovering the question of the six links in the chain. In search, call The small world problemthose responsible asked randomly selected people — who lived in Omaha, Nebraska, and Wichita, Kansas (all in the USA) — to forward a letter to an unknown person from Massachusetts, only through their acquaintances.

Some letters never reached their destination because the participants abandoned the experiment. But those who continued, reached their goal: to get in touch with the chosen person, in an average of six steps or less. Of course, later other similar experiments were done.

In 1998, Professor Duncan Watts recreated Milgram’s experiment, but this time using technology and the Internet. Instead of letters, they sent emails to recipients in 157 countries. On average, the number of intermediaries was also around six. Currently, and with access to social networks, it seems that these six degrees of separation have been reduced.

In 2011, Facebook and collaborating researchers calculated that among the 721 million people using the platform at the time, the separation was 3.74 degrees. Today, with a considerable increase in users of this social network, there has also been a reduction in the degree of connection between them.

It’s good to think, nowadays, that between each one of us and some celebrity, to give an example, there can be a very short distance of connection. Likewise, the theory of six degrees of separation has its uses in other sectors.

One is in the world of work. Before, we had to distribute hundreds of resumes, in the hope that they would reach the corresponding office. Now it’s easier to publicize our profile and get the much-desired project, if we wisely use our contacts on social networks, such as those on LinkedIn.

The plot of the movie Six Degrees of Separationstarring Will Smith in 1993, is based on the idea proposed by the theory of the six degrees of separation between different people, no matter how far apart they seem to be.

In this case, the actor plays a young man who shows up at the home of two important art dealers, pretending to be someone else. His presence activates a series of events that will completely change their lives.

Who would you like to connect with following the six degrees of separation theory?