Three Degrees of Influence – How far can you reach people?
Three Degrees of Influence
Recently in lecture, a topic was mentioned: “Six degrees of separation”. This is a theory where a stranger can be connected to you indirectly through approximately six links of “a friend of a friend”. However, we wonder sometimes how far a node can span its influence to. Nicholas Christakis, proposed the theory“three degrees of influence”. He suggests that everything we do or say tends to ripple through our network and impact our friends with around three degrees of separation (friend of a friend’s friend). The influence from the source ceases to effect beyond “three degrees.”
This is rather fascinating. This means that although we can be connected to everyone else by approximately six degrees of separation, this does not mean that we can influence in social networks. Christakis explains the three possibly reason why our influence is limited. First, information through a network such as Facebook is filtered or not transmitted. Messages now a days are ranked base on what people are interested about. Second, these very links that connect to strangers might break due to various reasons. Social network is dynamic. Sometimes best friends from primary school lose touch. Hence, there is a greater chance that a tie that is three degrees from you is removed. The last reason is that our social network is evolving. Humans tend to form relations based on geographical location, college, places where communication is required. In other words, we connect and influence small groups of people of up to three degrees of influence.
This is an interesting analysis as Christakis appears to raise a darker moral implication of whether the idea of network influence affects a person of free will. And example (in broader scale) given is the society. If social networks are used to create a healthier and moral society, will this influence people to avoid criminal activities?
Sources
http://www.strategy-business.com/article/10218?gko=cece9