You're Never More Than 6 People Away From Anyone Else

A recent experiment carried out by the University of Columbia in New York appears to support the theory that you can communicate with anyone in the world via 6 or so contacts. Email was used as the means of studying our social interactivity.

The study challenged volunteers to send an email to a predetermined recipient - but not directly. Instead the message had to be sent via a friend or colleague who was perceived to be closer to the designated end receiver.

The results affirm the belief that we are all equal at a communicative level and nobody is reliant on any minority of individuals to do the job on their behalf. 61,168 people took part, each having to choose one of 18 target people in 13 countries.

BBC