“Six Degrees of Separation” might be a popular song by The Script, but this phenomenon really does exist in real life.

Have you ever met someone who knows a mutual acquaintance? Start asking those in your Network about their Social ties.

You might be surprised to realize that despite the immense size of the human race, seemingly random individuals can be linked to each other through comparably tiny chains of acquaintances. Normally, this number ends up being around six.

Scientists recently set out to study this phenomenon and discovered that it could be explained mathematically.

Even more, they found that the “magic of six degrees” can also be linked to a different social experience– the challenge of weighing cost versus benefit when developing new friendships.

One example that illustrates this phenomenon best took place back in 1967, when a Letter was received by a farmer in Omaha, Nebraska. The person who penned the letter was Professor Stanley Milgram from Harvard University, who was hoping to get into contact with one of his colleagues.

“If you happen to know this person, please forward this letter to him,” the correspondence read.

After traveling from Harvard University– which is located in Boston– to Omaha, the chances of this letter finding Professor Milgram’s intended peer were extremely low. So, the professor asked that if the recipient did not know that intended person, to please pass it along to someone who may.

This letter was just one of approximately 300 identical letters sent throughout the United States. They all sought to find “Joe,” a man from the farmlands, and link him with the prestigious East Coast university.

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Of course, not all of these letters made it to “Joe” successfully. However, the ones that arrived at the correct recipient showed, for the first time, that American society is connected by familiar social pathways– or “friends of friends.”

While it may be easier to conceive that these pathways exist, their shortness might be the more surprising part. This experiment showed that, even in a society with hundreds of millions of people, only about six social ties are needed to bridge the gap between two random individuals.

That’s why Milgram’s experiment essentially solidified the idea that the world is “small.”

Yes, there were limitations to this letter-sending study. The experiment didn’t take into account the letters that didn’t make it to their final destination. It was just that, of the letters that did arrive, they took an average of six steps.

Nonetheless, Professor Milgram’s findings have since been confirmed in a variety of more systematic experiments.

For instance, it was found that millions of Facebook users are just five or six clicks away from each other. The phenomenon was discovered in various other contexts, too, including actor networks, the Microsoft Messenger network, and across a group of 24,000 email accounts.

While all of these studies reaffirmed the phenomenon, though, their contexts were extremely different and varied in scale. This pushed scientists to wonder why, despite the differences, these networks still seemed to favor the number six.

That’s why a group of researchers from Chile, Italy, Israel, Russia, Slovenia, and Spain recently collaborated to understand the mathematics behind “six degrees of separation.” They discovered that a natural human social challenge– weighing the costs versus benefits of social ties– may point toward the root of “the magic number six.”

Take a moment to think about why social networking is so coveted– in both work and recreation. Oftentimes, individuals hope to gain something, whether that be status or prominence, by identifying strategic social connections.

In these cases, people aren’t just hoping to accumulate a massive number of connections. Instead, they’re looking to find more meaningful “right” connections– which will essentially place them in a middle-network position and allow them to funnel more information flowing through their network.

But, with such a prime position comes a cost. Friendships, even those that offer very valuable social capital, must be consistently maintained.

So, research has found that both online and offline social networks are extremely dynamic and consist of individuals who are constantly weighing the costs and benefits of social ties. Sometimes, they cut off social connections; other times, they make new ones.

At the heart of this game is the goal of social centrality, and once this battle reaches a sort-of equilibrium, all people involved have secured a position in the network that balances their drive for status against their budget for friendships.

“When we did the math, we discovered an amazing result: this process always ends with social paths centered around the number six. This is quite surprising,” explained Professor Baruch Barzel, one of the study’s lead authors.

“We need to understand that each individual in the network acts independently, without any knowledge or intention about the network as a whole. But still, this self-driven game shapes the structure of the entire network. It leads to the small world phenomenon and to the recurring pattern of six degrees.”

While this discovery helps to explain how just a few clicks or conversations lead to the spreading of social trends, fads, and other ideas, the researchers also pointed out how the same short social chains can lead to the spreading of viruses and other pathogens– such as COVID-19.

“But on the upside, this collaboration is a great example of how six degrees can play in our favor. How else would a team from six countries around the world come together? This is truly six degrees in action!” Barzel said.

To read the study’s complete findings, which have since been published in Physical Review X, visit the link here.

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