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02-Strong and Weak Ties II
02-Strong and Weak Ties II
Two conclusions
The new employer was only one or two hops away from me
But the contact was a weak connection
“not a friend, an acquaintance”
Puzzle:
If my would-be employer is so “close”, why didn’t my close
friends help me?
2 Strong and Weak Ties II
Main idea
Not all social links are created equal
“Strong” ties with close friends
“Weak” ties with far-off acquaintances
A C
E B
A C
?
?
5 8
6 7
A C
E B
Closed V shapes are triangles
A C B B B B
D A C A C A C A C
E B
Closed V shapes are triangles
Each triangle counts as 3 V shapes
A C
D
3 x number of triangles = 3 x 4 = 12
A C
Bridges
Connection to Triadic Closure
Measuring via neighborhood overlap
Examples
Local Bridge
Local Bridge
C
Vanilla triadic closure: B
“close the V shapes”
A
C
Triadic closure with tie strengths B
Preferentially close the V shapes
formed by strong ties A
26 Strong and Weak Ties II
Bridges and tie strengths
An extreme version of this is…
Strong triadic closure property
If A has strong friendships with B and C, then
B and C must be connected
C C C
B B B
A A A
Closure via Closure via
strong tie weak tie Not possible!
C E
Bridge
A B
D F
C E
Bridge
A B
D F
Explanation
Where do you hear about new job openings?
From bridges
Who are the bridges?
From the Strong Triadic Closure property
(two close friends of mine are likely to know each other)
C E
bridges must be weak ties (acquaintances) Bridge
A B
D F
Bridges
Connection to Triadic Closure
Measuring via neighborhood overlap
Examples
A Bridge B
A B
34 Strong and Weak Ties II
Measuring bridge-ness
Neighborhood overlap
How much overlap is there between friends of A and friends of B?
A B
35 Strong and Weak Ties II
Measuring bridge-ness
Neighborhood overlap
How much overlap is there between friends of A and friends of
B?
Number of friends of both A and B
Jaccard coefficient =
Number of friends of either A or B
2
=
A Bridge B
2
= = 0.4
5
A Bridge B
Bridge
A B
38 Strong and Weak Ties II
Jaccard and Clustering coefficients
Number of friends of both A and B
Jaccard coefficient =
Number of friends of either A or B
A Bridge B
A Bridge B
Bridges
Connection to Triadic Closure
Measuring via neighborhood overlap
Examples
Why?
coefficient
Commented or Comments
posted reciprocated
https://www.facebook.com/notes/face
book-data-team/maintened-relationshi
ps-on-facebook/55257228858
Network at different tie strengths
43 Strong and Weak Ties II
Tie strengths on Twitter
Number of close Twitter friends
Triadic closure
This is the “structural” property of the network
46 Strong and Weak Ties II
Summary
Granovetter’s idea:
Why?
Close friends are tightly clustered together
(triadic closure of strong ties)