It’s A Small World After All (just like the ride at Disneyland says)

http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/Story?id=2717038&page=1
This ABC news article is about an experiment at Columbia called the “Small World Project” which set out to prove the six degrees of separation theory first preformed by Stanley Milgram and his colleagues in the 1960s.

“The Small World Project is carried out online. In the experiment, each participant, or "searcher," is assigned a random "target," one of 18 people around the world. Their job is to link to this person via e-mail. But there's a catch -- they can't just send an e-mail directly to the target, they must connect by creating a human chain.”

“Some 60,000 people from 170 countries have taken part in the experiment. Of the hundreds of chains that have been completed, Watts says the average number of links has been six, supporting the six degrees of separation theory.”

This article proves that in a very large network the paths are surprisingly short. This is also known as the “Small World Phenomenon” and is indicative of how quickly information (or diseases for that matter) can be spread through a large social network. I find it very interesting to know that we are all so closely connected, even to people we have never met or even know the names of.

Interesting idea... although I feel like doing this kind of experiment in an age where nearly everyone has access to the internet for research purposes definitely makes "cheating" a concern... what's to stop you from looking up some background information about this person before you forward your message along? I realize that this particular experiment was performed using a picture of a person, so there's not too much you can look up, but still, its a thought to be considered. I guess if you do enough of these experiments, those small anomalies should eventually become negligible.

P.S. I went on that ride over Spring break, and it was as awesome as it was when I was seven.

I agree with that the idea is interesting and that it is being tested in a more modern way (using the Internet) than Milgram's experiment, which used letters. I also agree that you can run into problems with "cheating" as well, but I guess you have to trust the integrity and honesty of those involved with the experiment. One thing I have a problem with is the assertion that the experimenters were taking into account class, social standing and race. I think they were assuming everyone has access to the Internet. This is totally not true. What about the less technologically developed countries, especially third world countries? How are they suppposed to get an email and forward it to someone else? Also people living in such countires are more likely to be isolated and unable to travel because of costs. How big can their networks be if everyone in a village knows each other and stays within their village boundaries? I would think if they were included in the experiment, we would have to adjust the "six" in the six degrees of separation. Maybe it's just me, but I think the "Small World Project" title should have a subtitle or something indicating it is not a foolproof experiment and not truly testing the expanse of networks in the world. As for a solution to this problem, you've got me.

ps. Maybe I'm being pessimistic because I've never been on the ride. The song is fun though.