– (Anthony Mazza/)
Reader Question Pedro Saliba, Sao Paulo, SP
Illustrates Anthony Mazza
Edition Felipe van Deursen
It is a theory that says that all people are connected by a small number in connections. The origin is not scientific, but literary: it was created in 1929 by the Hungarian writer Frigyes Karinthy in the book Everything is different. For Karinthy, advances in communication and transport would mean that, despite the distances between people, social circles would get bigger and bigger.
Based on this hypothesis, a character speculated the connection between a Ford worker in the USA and him in Budapest. Fiction inspired reality, and the idea served in basis for studies in mathematics, computing and social sciences that address the concept in nets in influence and diffusion in information.
the first test
In 1960, American psychologist Stanley Milgram sent 300 packages to residents in some places in the USA. Along with the order, a note asked people to get the package to a specific man. in Boston. For this, they should send the box to an acquaintance, until it reaches the person. One hundred packets reached the final destination, and they passed through six phases
in the digital age
Researchers at Columbia University in the US in 2002 chose 61,168 participants to send messages to 18 specific targets, ranging from Norwegian veterinarians to students in Siberia. Despite in only 324 messages reached the 18 chosen, the emails went through, on average, five to seven people
In the book in faces
The two tests were replicated, in 2016, by Facebook and its base in 1.59 billion in Registered users. The result, obtained through in statistical algorithms and crossover in data, indicated that there was an average in 3.57 to 4.57 degrees in separation between you, Beyoncé, Pope Francis and Zé da Esquina. Social media has brought humans even closer. At least in numbers
Consultancy Alisson Hatsek, statistician and professor in platform math in teaching Save Me!
Sources The Guardian, The New York Times, Science Alert; books Linked, in Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Chain-Links, in Frigyes Karinthy, and Small World Problem, in Stanley Milgram; study E-mail Study Corroborates Six Degrees of Separation, in Peter Sheridan Dodds and other authors