Web study: There's six degrees of separation
In a Web-connected world, even strangers are only a few electronic clicks away. A study finds that most anyone can reach a distant stranger in an average of six relays by asking friends and acquaintances to message some site seemingly closer to the target.
Researchers at Columbia University set up an experiment in which individuals would try to get a message to a stranger somewhere else in the world through the Internet. Participants knew basic facts about the 18 targets: name, location, profession and some educational background.
The participants were urged to send their contact message to someone they knew who was closer to the target. That person, in turn, was urged to send a message a contact that they knew. The process continued until the target received the message or, as often happened, the process broke down from the lack of interest.
More than 61,000 individuals from 166 countries signed up for the experiment and created a total of 24,163 message chains. Only 384 of the chains, however, reached their targets.
