Page 162 - Essencials of Sociology

Groups within Society 135

The smallest part of social networks is our friends and acquaintances, the people we hang out with and do things together. This part of our social
networks overlaps with and forms a core part of our reference groups. From these two photos, can you see how the reference groups and social
networks of these youths are not likely to lead them to the same social destination?

women who didn’t know one another ended up working together on a project. They
got along well, and they began to sit together. Eventually, they planned a Christmas
party at one of their homes. This type of social network, the clusters within a group, or
its internal factions, is called a clique (cleek).
Applied Network Analysis. The analysis of social networks has become part of applied
sociology. An interesting application is its use to reduce gang violence. When a gang mem-
ber is shot, the gang retaliates by shooting members of the rival gang. This leads to endless
violence, with each trying to even the score. To try to break this cycle of lethal violence,
when they arrest a gang member, the Chicago police are adding the person’s name to a
program that links people. When a gang member is shot, the police click the name of the
individual. This person appears at the center, with his associates and known enemies shown
in concentric circles. Another click brings up the mug shots with their gang affiliations.
The police then know who might be seeking to avenge the shooting (Belkin 2012).
The Small World Phenomenon. Social scientists have wondered just how extensive
the connections are among social networks. If you list everyone you know, and each of
those individuals lists everyone he or she knows, and you keep doing this, would almost
everyone in the United States eventually be included on those lists?
It would be too cumbersome to test this hypothesis by drawing up such lists, but
psychologist Stanley Milgram (1933–1984) came up with an interesting idea. In a classic
study known as “the small world phenomenon,” Milgram (1967) addressed a letter to
“targets”: the wife of a divinity student in Cambridge and a stockbroker in Boston. He
sent the letter to “starters,” who did not know these people. He asked them to send the
letter to someone they knew on a first-name basis, someone they thought might know
the “target.” The recipients, in turn, were asked to mail the letter to a friend or acquain-
tance who might know the “target,” and so on. The question was, Would the letters
ever reach the “target”? If so, how long would the chain be?
Think of yourself as part of this study. What would you do if you were a “starter,” but the
“target” lived in a state in which you knew no one? You would send the letter to someone
that you think might know someone in that state.
This, Milgram reported, is just what happened. Although none of the senders knew the
targets, the letters reached the designated individual in an average of just six jumps.
Milgram’s study caught the public’s fancy, leading to the phrase “six degrees of sepa-
ration.” This expression means that, on average, everyone in the United States is sepa- clique (cleek) a cluster of people
rated by just six individuals. Milgram’s conclusions have become so popular that a game, within a larger group who choose
to interact with one another
“Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” was built around it.