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Triadic Closure is Not for Just Human Social Networks

When we think of the social network, we automatically think of our social networks, that is, people’s social networks. We think of how our social networks grow, as we become connected deeper and wider to the world around us. Soon enough, we realize we are somehow connected to almost everyone in this world in some direct or very indirect way. We also realize the power of friendships between two people, and how this friendship is often all that is needed to lead to a new relationship. For example, how many times have you accepted a Facebook friend request from someone you’ve never spoken to but you know is your best friend’s best friend? Chances are, almost always. You love your best friend, and as a sign of loyalty to your friendship, you love her/his best friends too (or at least think highly of them). We often think that there are a lot of human emotions involved in this judgment: sense of loyalty, social expectations, politeness, etc. However, science has recently shown that this tendency to love your best friend’s other best friends goes beyond the human social network. Spotted hyenas, like humans, also tend to become friends with only friends of friends.

Scientists have researched spotted hyenas in Kenya for the past 20 years and have concluded one definite thing: they are “selective in their social choices, tending to not form bonds with every hyena in the clan, rather preferring the friends of their friends.” In other words, they’re just like us (or we’re just like them). Hyenas and human beings both have this urge to bond with friends of friends instead of strangers. Mathematically, we have this innate desire to satisfy the triadic closure. Even if the stranger is the most accomplished person in this world, there is a much bigger chance that we will be more inclined to become friends with our best friend’s friends. Just think about it: if you had to be stranded on an island with one other person, would you choose a really famous actor/singer/artist/philanthropist/billionaire you really know nothing about personality-wise or someone your best friend constantly tells you is such an amazing, funny person? Probably the latter. From this research, it shows that our desire to satisfy the triadic closure is not because of the human in us that makes life so unnecessarily complicated sometimes. It’s because of the being in us, the hyenas, and probably every other living beings in this world.

 

http://phys.org/news/2015-05-friends-friendseven-hyena.html

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