Facebook and the University of Milan jointly announce new research on the six-degree separation theory

Today, the social-networking giant Facebook and the University of Milan jointly announced their new research on the six-degree separation theory: They have now determined that the average number of people in any two independent world is 4.74. Facebook's study, which was targeted at 721 million active users visiting Facebook within one months, 10%,our4.org the world's population and said their conclusions should be more believable.

In 1967, the American social psychologist Milgram (Stanley Milgram) first proposed a "Six degree separation" theory. And in simple terms, it is this theory that in the context of interpersonal communication, any of the two strangers can be through each other "relatives and friends" to establish a beautiful connection, and in the middle of the maximum by five friends can achieve the goals of both sides (at that time Milgram's study is the conclusion of 5.2). To be more popular: you and any stranger, the interval between the number of people will not exceed five, and that is to say, perhaps up to five people you can go to know any stranger.

But over the past 30 years, the theory of the so-called interpersonal networking (such as the "Everyone in the World") is still in dispute. And there are few studies on this issue since the publication of the paper. However, there are many applications, especially in the insurance and MLM industries. At present, in Hong Kong, the general insurance broker will require the client to provide a new list of at least five people after the transaction has been completed. In addition, in the early 1980 's, Reader's Digest used this theory to encourage subscribers to recommend other potential subscribers to the company.

Microsoft researchers jure Leskovec and Eric Horvitz Filter 2006 's January MSN SMS, using 30 billion of the 240 million users ' communication to compare It was found that any user could relate to a total of 180 billion pairs of databases through an average of 6.6 people. 48% of users can have a connection within 6 times, while up to 78% of users can be connected within 7 times.

But the world is smaller than we thought. Today, social networking giant Facebook and the University of Milan have jointly announced their new research on the six-degree separation theory: They have identified an average of 4.74 people between any two individuals in the world.

The Facebook study was developed using the University of Milan Web algorithm Lab (Laboratory for web Algorithmics of the Universitàdegli Studi di Milano) State-of-the-art algorithm (the country's most advanced algorithm, State-of-the-art algorithms), studies show that a six-degree description of the actual two-person connection is slightly larger, actually on Facebook, The probability of a 5-degree interval between any 2 users is 99.6%, and the probability of a 4-degree interval between any 2 users is 92%.

Facebook's research is about 721 million active users visiting Facebook in one months, more than 10% of the world's population, so their conclusions should be more believable. Our4.org: If the research results are credible, then the six-degree separation theory will be rewritten.