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6 Degrees of Separation? New Study Says 6.6

Microsoft researcher seems to confirm that the world is a pretty small place

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Aug 2, 2008 12:39 PM CDT

(Newser) – A huge Microsoft study of its Messenger records bolsters the oft-quoted, but never proven, theory of “six degrees of separation"—almost. The study puts the figure at 6.6, but that's still a pretty small world. A Microsoft researcher analyzed 30 billion messages sent among 180 million users worldwide and found that most people could be linked by a string of fewer than 7 acquaintances, the Washington Post reports.

"To me, it was pretty shocking," said one of the researchers. "What we're seeing suggests there may be a social connectivity constant for humanity," a sentiment that makes playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon almost scholarly. The study, which included all of Microsoft Messenger’s traffic from June 2006—half of the world’s at the time—is by far the largest investigation into the details of personal interconnectivity.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (1)]

Actor Kevin Bacon. (AP Photo)

Bacon is famous in part for the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon party game. (AP Photo)

Instant messaging was the key to the research's grand scope. (AP Photo)

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People have had this suspicion that we are really close. But we are showing on a very large scale that this idea goes beyond folklore. - Eric Horvitz, Microsoft researcher

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6 Degrees of Separation? New Study Says 6.6