How Strong Triadic Closure Property Explains the “Three Degrees of Influence” Theory
Source: https://www.strategy-business.com/article/10218?gko=cece9
The famous “six degrees of separation” theory says that everyone in the world is at most six people away from each other. This means that you can find anyone, including the president within six degrees of connections. The article states that although we are connected to any person through six or fewer friends, our influence on others may only extend to three degrees of separation. Our influence gradually weakens and eventually no longer has a noticeable effect on people three degrees away from us.
Three possible reasons account for the decrease of influence. First, the fidelity of information decreases as it is transmitted. Second, ties in networks sometimes break. We are connected to a person degrees of separation away from us by a chain of friends. If one tie in this chain broke, we would lose a pathway to this person. Third, evolutionary biology says that “people appear to have evolved in small groups, but have not lived in large groups long enough for evolution to have favored people who can extend their influence over three degrees.”
I think the Strong Triadic Closure Property we learned in class can also explain the “three degrees of influence” phenomenon. The property states that if one person has strong ties to two other people, there has to be a tie between the two people too. For example, if A has a strong tie with B, and B has a strong tie with C. In this case, C is two degrees away from A. There has to be at least a weak tie between A and C. Then, three degrees away from A, D has a strong tie with C, but D may or may not have a tie with A, and even less likely a strong one. Following this logic, people who are closest have strong ties between them, and then down the friendship chain, the ties become weaker and weaker. Eventually, beyond three degrees, the tie is too weaker for one to have an influence on the other.