What is the theory of six handshakes and why does it work? Does the rule of six handshakes work: my experiment Confirmation of the rule of “6 handshakes” with modern technologies
IN modern society There are few people who are not familiar with the theory of 6 handshakes. Now that the Internet has erased all boundaries in communication between people who otherwise might never have met, this theory can be renamed the 6-click rule. However, few people know that it was described long before its appearance in the novel of the famous Hungarian writer Frides Karinthy. The work belonged to the genre of fiction and was published when no one had even thought about the theory of 6 handshakes and its essence.
Theory of 6 handshakes
It is difficult to argue with the statement that the world is a small place. Few people have not encountered a situation where, while in an unfamiliar society, they met mutual acquaintances. No one thinks that, in fact, human society is not infinite, it is limited by certain boundaries and, to some extent, closed. In theory, each of us can know any person on the globe through mutual friends or relatives.
It would seem impossible. However, one should not rush to conclusions. There is a theory of 6 handshakes, which is that all people on planet Earth know each other through 5 people, which amounts to 6 levels of communication.
It's a small world
Despite the fact that this theory looks fantastic at first glance, it has existed for quite a long time and has been confirmed more than once.
It is difficult to say when the expression “It’s a small world” appeared. Most likely, it dates back to the times when people lived only on their own territory and practically did not travel beyond its borders. 
Over the years, the borders expanded, people began to first visit each other, and then move from their homes in search of a better life. However, in new places we met either fellow countrymen or other people with whom we had once known. As a last resort, in conversations with new people there were almost always mutual acquaintances. It is since then that this concept has entered our lexicon.
Milgram experiment
The rule about the close ties of humanity is associated with the names of American psychologists Stanley Milgram and Jeffrey Travers, who in 1969 proposed a concept that has come down to us as the theory of 6 handshakes. Even 2 years before the results of the experiment were published, Milgram conducted a study whose purpose was to determine the length of the chain connecting people with each other. Calling it “It’s a Small World,” the scientist developed a special algorithm designed to count the number of connections between two people.
Progress of the experiment
The sites where Milgram's experiment was conducted were the cities of Omaha and Wichita, which are located in the states of Nebraska and Kansas, respectively. The recipient was a resident of Boston. The scientists explained their choice by the fact that, despite the small distance of the cities from each other in terms of geography, their residents were separated by a whole gulf in terms of living standards and education. 
The experiment consisted of randomly selected residents of Omaha and Wichita being sent letters inviting them to take part in a scientific experiment. If they agreed, they should write their details on the form included in the letter. This letter would then be sent to the Boston resident whose name was on the envelope. If the addressee knew him personally, he should have forwarded the letter to him, and if not, then he should have sent the message to a person who was more likely to know him. The only condition was that the envelope should be sent only to a personally acquainted person or relative.
Results of the experiment
The main difficulty of the study was the number of people who agreed to pass on the letter. Moreover, the failure occurred at various stages of the experiment. As a result, out of 296 letters sent with an invitation to participate, the final addressee received 64. At the same time, the length of the chain of friends was on average 5-6 people. 
It is noteworthy that many people, when choosing the next addressee, proceeded from the one who lives closer to the addressee’s city, and just in this case the letter to ultimate goal didn't get it. It took 2 years for the law of six handshakes to be formulated, which with the advent of the Internet received a new meaning.
6 emails
Already on modern stage development of society, scientists decided to repeat Milgram's experiment using new technologies. A group of Columbia University employees sent 24,613 emails to different parts of the world. The point of the study was that people who received these letters had to find one of 20 recipients. Data about them was minimal: first name, last name, education, occupation, place of residence. 
The first success of the study came from a volunteer from Australia, who managed to find his secret addressee in Siberia through just 4 messages. Thus, the theory of 6 handshakes was confirmed for the second time, how to test which many sociologists were interested.
Confirmation of the theory of 6 handshakes on social networks
In 2011, the most famous woman decided to test the rule of six handshakes. social network Facebook. Another study was conducted jointly with the University of Milan. According to its results, the number of links in the human chain is even less than 6 and averages 4.74. Thus, an inhabitant of the planet living on one point of the globe is connected with an inhabitant of another point through “friends of friends.” The only condition is registration in the global virtual community.
The following study of the validity of the theory was conducted among users of the Russian social network VKontakte. Here the chain of friends averaged 3-4 people. Surprisingly, not a single exceeding of the number 6 in the human chain was recorded. Considering the territorial limitation of this virtual community, it can be argued that the results of the study also confirm the theory of 6 handshakes.
Criticism of the 6 handshakes law
Like any research, this rule has been criticized more than once, both by scientists and ordinary people. The main argument that the category of doubters referred to was that the links of the human chain were interrupted more than once in all experiments. However, in this case, the failure of the study occurred only due to the refusal of the participants to pass the baton.
Another argument critics make concerns social media research. In this case, the object of doubt is the classification of all people on the list of participants’ friends as acquaintances. This is a rather controversial statement, but still, if someone is among your friends on your page on any social network, it means that you still have some kind of relationship with each other.
Thus, the arguments of critics who speak out against the law of 6 handshakes are not weighty enough to provide a serious refutation of the theory.
Truth or Myth
Whether or not to believe the law of 6 handshakes, everyone decides for themselves. However, it is worth considering that in the scientific world they take it more than seriously. Moreover, scientists who speak out for this theory work in a variety of fields, often far from sociology, with which it all began. One of the most striking examples of this attitude of the scientific world is the game “Erdos Number”, named after the Hungarian mathematician who wrote many scientific works. The point of the game is to find the shortest human chain that leads from any randomly selected scientist to Erdős himself. For example, a scientist is assigned the first number if he worked with the founder of the game at any time. The second number is given to the scientist who worked with a scientist who, in turn, worked with Erdős himself. It is noteworthy that most Nobel Prize winners have small numbers in this game.
By the way, anyone can test this theory, and you don’t need to be a scientist to do this. All you need to do is create your own “dating map”. It is advisable that the link no lower than the fourth should be an acquaintance with a celebrity. The greater his popularity, the higher the likelihood of meeting a huge number of people, including high-ranking people, who, in turn, have no less acquaintances.
So maybe we all know each other after 6 handshakes. Due to detailed study With all the results of experiments carried out at different periods of time and using different methods, the popular joke about meeting the Queen of England no longer seems fantastic. Think about which celebrity, who until now seemed completely unattainable, you might be familiar with, according to this theory. It is likely that the result of your own research will greatly surprise you.
Hello, dear readers! I think many people have come across a message on the social network Facebook, for example, that a wallet was found or lost, and the author wants to check the rule of 6 handshakes, which states that we know absolutely any person in this world who is separated from us by no more than six levels of communication. It was this meaning that our ancestors introduced when they formed the saying that the world is a small place.
A little history
To completely simplify this scheme, I will explain it with an example. Remember the series "Breaking Bad"? There is an interesting point about the fact that the lawyer knows a guy who knows another guy who is needed. While the theory had not yet been formed, it was first written about by the Hungarian Karinthy Frides around 1929. In his story “Links of the Chain,” he jokingly shared the idea that all people on the planet are connected to each other, regardless of whether they are famous or from an ordinary simple family.
Research by psychologists
In 1969, psychologist Stanley Milgram and his colleague Jeffrey Traveros decided to explore this hypothesis and conduct an experiment. To do this, they needed a complete stranger, whom they decided to discover with the help of people who could know his “casual” acquaintances and friends. By chance, the choice fell on a broker from Massachusetts, who worked in Boston.
Stanley and Jeffrey, according to some sources, prepared 160 letters, and according to others - 300, and sent them to various residents of the United States. In these letters there was a request that they, having written their contact information, forward the envelope to some person who may be close to the specified broker either professionally or geographically, for example, also living in Boston or knowing his relatives in Massachusetts.
It is only important that this person to whom they planned to send it was either a relative or a friend, but not a random stranger. And while the envelopes made their journey, they gradually acquired new names. Those who knew about the experiment were of the opinion that a lot of time would have to be spent on the process, and that the letters would pass through at least 100 hands before reaching the designated person. In the end, 60 letters reached the addressee.
And after Milgram analyzed the entire list of names that were indicated by the people participating in the experiment, he realized that the envelopes managed to visit mainly 5-6 people, after which they ended up with the broker. That is, the theory of six handshakes was indeed confirmed. Afterwards, Stanley noticed that the names of three people were listed on more than 30 envelopes. One of them was a clothing salesman from the store next to which the broker lived, the other two were his colleagues.
That is, they had the widest circle of acquaintances, thanks to which the study ended successfully. Later, Malcolm Glaudell, a journalist from Canada, coined the term “unifier”, which characterizes such individuals who know how to create connections.
Microsoft Research
In 2006, Microsoft became interested in this theory and decided to conduct its own research. Thanks to modern technology, it has become possible to calculate the average mathematically. Corporation employees processed billions of messages in literally one month and came to the conclusion that two completely different and unfamiliar people are actually separated by 6 so-called handshakes. And to be more precise, then average value was equal to 6.6.
Facebook-based research
But the experiments did not end there; using the well-known social network Facebook as a basis, in 2011 scientists from the University of Milan received a slightly different figure - only 4.74. And indeed, every year the circle of acquaintances of every person on the planet increases, because it has become popular to add as friends even those people whom you have crossed paths with somewhere before, and even then, you haven’t really had time to get to know each other.
And the fact that in a rare house there is no telephone or computer with Internet access allows anyone to communicate even with someone who is currently on the other side of the globe. There is even a service that helps establish connections between users, and developments are underway to organize large-scale communication between the entire population of the planet.
And sociologists from the University of Columbia organized a whole quest. Having recruited approximately a thousand volunteers, they provided only superficial information, such as the full name, place of residence and occupation of 20 people, and asked them to find them on the condition that they use only e-mail. Believe it or not, literally with the help of 4 messages the first “secret” person was discovered.
The theory of 6 handshakes is presented very interestingly in the film “Yolki”. It is light, cheerful and touching, and tells how residents from different parts of Russia help one child from orphanage. Do you know how? They convey his request to each other, which is addressed to the President. And this is not so easy to do, if only because no one knows him personally.
Algorithm
The world first learned about the theory of six handshakes in the 30s of the last century. It was described in detail in the fantasy story "Links of the Chain" by Friedes Karinthy. The plot was based on an experiment that proved that all the inhabitants of the planet know each other through a maximum of 5 people. This phenomenon became interesting to sociologists, and in 1969 the theory was finally formed. To confirm the hypothesis, American sociologists Jeffrey Travers and Stanley Milgram distributed 300 envelopes to residents of a small town. The goal was simple: using only your own contacts, deliver a letter to the addressee. 60 letters reached the desired address, and the path length of each letter did not exceed 5 people. The essence of the experiment was as follows: if the subject did not know the addressee, then it was necessary to send a letter to a person who most likely knew him. Perhaps the organizers did not take into account the cost of stamps, so out of 300 letters only 60 arrived.
Later, the experiment was repeated, but using modern means of communication. A total of 20 secret addresses were created, and volunteers were asked to find these people. Surprisingly, the first to succeed was an Australian resident, who found the right address through just four friends. And this address turned out to be not on the next street or even in the next city, but in Siberia!
Microsoft approached the experiment on a grand scale
Microsoft deployed all the necessary resources and spent 2 years, during which specialists analyzed almost 250 million messages and identified relationships. Yes, and again everything came together - any user of the service could find another through 6.6 people on average.
But even knowing about this theory, we are still surprised when we find mutual acquaintances even where it would seem that this is excluded.
Social media experiment
With the advent of the era of social networks, the experiment was repeated there. Probably, each of us has noticed that when accepting a friend invitation from a stranger, we see one or two mutual friends. Surprisingly, these people connected you for a long time in real or virtual life, and in fact you knew each other long before you started communicating on social networks. Facebook, being the largest social network today, popular all over the world, conducted its research in collaboration with the University of Milan. And their verdict: the number of links in the human chain is only 4.4. Of course, there is an error, since the registration coverage on Facebook is not 100%.
Arguments in favor of refuting the hypothesis
There are always those who support and those who doubt. Not everyone is ready to accept the theory of six handshakes as an axiom. And the main argument in favor of a refutation was that the chain was interrupted, and not every letter found its addressee. Here you need to take into account human factor: someone did not want to take part, someone forgot or for other reasons refused to take the baton.
As for social networks, in some ways the critics are right: yes, we don’t know all our friends personally, but the Internet allows people to become closer to each other, make virtual acquaintances and communicate without restrictions. You still know each other, albeit in absentia. There are no other, more compelling arguments in favor of refuting the theory.
The VKontakte game as a way to test the theory
You don't even need to install additional applications, just enter any first and last name into the search. From the list provided by the social network, select a person from another city and start playing. Go to his friends list, then go to the page of the first friend on the list and repeat the action. The social network ranks friends by rating, putting the most likely acquaintances at the top. On average, the chain will consist of 3-5 people. Thus, even skeptics can test the theory without leaving home or even leaving their desk. Instructions:
- Choose a “victim” (it must be real).
- Visit her page.
- Go to the page of her first friend on the list.
Theory doesn't always work
Even today there are closed groups who live separately and try to minimize contact with the outside world. In addition, some countries still use a caste system, which has very strict boundaries. And even the Internet cannot shorten this chain between people. In fact, the world of a particular person is determined by his peculiarities of life: habits, place of study and work, favorite places to relax, and it is in this layer that it is quite possible to find acquaintances within 6 handshakes.
What prevents you from confirming or disproving the rule:
- usage different ways communications, messengers and social networks;
- the presence of “closed” groups of people on the planet;
- the impossibility of conducting an experiment involving all the inhabitants of the Earth.
We must take for granted the fact that our world is not monolithic or homogeneous and consists of many layers, in each of which people live according to their own rules. Of course, with the advent of technology, people have become closer friend to a friend, but to fully confirm or refute the theory, 100% participation of all inhabitants of the planet is needed. But this does not seem possible.
The theory of six handshakes in art and cinema:
- play "Six Degrees of Separation";
- movie "Love Actually";
- TV series "Friends"
- series "Six";
- movie "Christmas Trees".
- Game "six steps to..."
Movie fans are well aware of the game “Six Steps to Kevin Bacon.” The goal of the game is to find a chain from any actor to Kevin Bacon using the principle “they starred together.” Kevin himself gave the idea for this game, saying that everyone who starred with him starred with all the actors in Hollywood. And mathematicians have a similar entertainment - the game “Erdős Number”. You need to get to Erdős using the principle of “who worked with him.” You can make this dating card yourself and try to play it. At least this interesting idea for the evening in big company friends.
Even if the theory is not true, it shows how many potential friends and acquaintances we have in different parts of the planet. After all, if you continue your research further, it is quite possible that you will have not only common acquaintances, but also common interests, hobbies, professional or other preferences. You just need to reach out to find new friends.
Each of us has ever thought about how huge and vast the world is, about how many completely different people there are on Earth. Despite differences in age, gender, skin color, all people are connected. Sometimes you can even be surprised how many friends and acquaintances everyone has.
Probably thinking deeply about this, the Hungarian science fiction writer Fridessa Karinthy wrote the story “Links of the Chain” in 1929. It was in it that the theory of six handshakes was first presented. He proposes to conduct an unusual experiment and prove that every person can contact absolutely any inhabitant of the planet through people they know each other and, at the same time, their number will not exceed six.
In 1969, the theory of handshakes was finally formed by American sociologists Jeffrey Travers and Stanley Milgram. Their hypothesis was that every person knows every other person through a chain of acquaintances that averages five people. An interesting experiment was conducted. Residents of one small American town were given 300 envelopes. They had to forward them to a specific recipient through their friends. Only 60 letters were delivered. After some calculations and analyses, experts came to the conclusion that each letter went through an average of five people. Thus, the theory of six handshakes was proven.
Scientific and technological progress has allowed scientists from to repeat using Email. Twenty secret destinations were created. The participants were given their first and last names, places of residence, education. Thousands of volunteers were asked to find them through friends and acquaintances. The first person to succeed was an Australian resident who found a secret address in Siberia through four acquaintances.
The world-famous Microsoft Corporation was also interested in the theory of six handshakes. It took them about two years to test it. During this time, 242,720,596 messages from users were analyzed. As a result, it was found that any of the 240 million users of this service can find another through 6.6 people on average.
The theory of 6 handshakes formed the basis of a large number of popular games. For example, many, including world-famous ones, play “Erdős Number”. This name was given in honor of the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős. He wrote great amount works, including co-authorship. The essence of the game is as follows: if a scientist has one work that was written together with Erdős, he receives one point; if co-authored with a scientist who wrote with Erdős, then two points. As is known, all Nobel Prize laureates have large Erdős numbers.
The social network VKontakte, popular in the CIS countries, has launched the “Chain of Friends - Theory of Six Handshakes” application. It allows you to create dating chains among network users. Due to the fact that the VKontakte audience is somewhat limited, the results are slightly different. Most chains are three to four people in size. Interesting fact is that there are no chains longer than six people. This in turn confirms the original theory.
In addition to various experiments, the theory of handshakes is also reflected in cinema. It formed the basis of the plot of such famous films as “Christmas Trees” and “Love Actually”.
Thanks to all kinds of research by scientists and sociologists, a joke has emerged that each of us, through five people, is familiar with
It was evening, there was nothing to do... While randomly surfing the Internet, I came across information on how to test the theory of a small world (“the theory of 6 handshakes”) in contact.
Who is too lazy to follow the link on Wiki, briefly on the subject: the theory of six handshakes is a theory according to which any two people on Earth are separated on average by only five levels of mutual acquaintances (and, accordingly, six levels of connections). The theory was put forward in 1969 by the American psychologists Stanley Milgram and Jeffrey Travers. The hypothesis they proposed was that each person indirectly knows every other inhabitant of the planet through a chain of mutual acquaintances, on average consisting of six people. Milgram relied on data from an experiment in two American cities. Residents of one city were given 300 envelopes, which had to be given to a certain person who lived in another city. Envelopes could only be transferred through friends and relatives. 60 envelopes reached the Boston addressee. After doing the math, Milgram determined that on average each envelope passed through five people. This is how the theory of “six handshakes” was born.
How to check it on VKontakte?
I'm stating it.
1. Write in the search for people any first and last name that comes to mind 2. From the resulting list, select a person not from your city (preferably further away, to make it more interesting) 3. Go to his list of friends and go to the page of the first one in the list (unfamiliar friends are ranked by rating) 4. Repeat step 3, counting the number of “handshakes”. On average there are 3-5 transitions.
No sooner said than done! And since I’m a literary-savvy girl, but with quite banal associations, the first name that came to mind (pause and check yourself)
That's right, we are looking for Evgeniy Onegin. There are already 2 thousand of them in contact... after all!
I go to the page of She has more friends. But the screenshot of her page is not inserted into the post, for the life of me! Censorship, however! We will look for workarounds. I had to upload screenshots to the gallery and provide links. I wonder if this will even work?
And the topic of boobs, which worries our male bloggers so much, has been completely covered.
From this mademoiselle I move on to the page of a certain handsome guy who has 2,350 friends as friends, and not all of them are girls.
From his list of friends, the first page on the list is a certain one, who for some reason appears on her page immediately in a knee-elbow position. Bingo! It turns out that this charming girl and I have a mutual friend! Total - exactly 5 steps. Slightly stupefied, I set up a control experiment.
Remembering something less banal and that shocked me in school years character of classical literature, I ask in the search Ekaterina Izmailova. There were 460 namesakes of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk district, if VKontakte does not lie.
I follow the link of the one who lives at the end of the world - in Magnitogorsk. At the same time, I’ll refresh my memory where it is.
Mrs. Izmailova has someone first on her list of friends, who is also quite a sociable friend.
Of his 1172 friends, I’m interested in the first one on the list - (I’m lucky with handsome guys today!
)
0 %
He even has mobile phone It’s written down on the page, but that’s not the main thing. The first from the list of 2,757 friends of Andrey is given the page of someone from VSU named after. Masherova.
Of course, with Mr. Usovich we immediately find out. Total - three “handshakes”
Further, in the control measurements, it turned out that 4 people bring me closer (separates?) with Andrei Makarevich or his clone on the network, abstract Vanya Sidorov - 5, Petya Ivanov - 7.
I won’t tell you in detail, I don’t have the strength to take screenshots, and the blog engine (Hey, developers!) is acting up, completely refusing to insert pictures. Damn those! I’ve been writing this post for two days, I’m tired. That's it, I'll post what happened. Don't shoot the pianist, he plays as best he can.
Well, the final question.
Do you, dear monobloc residents, feel your connection with the whole world? And how does it manifest itself?
