Don Ledingham’s Learning Log

It never ceases to amaze me how we live in such a small world.  I know Scotland, East Lothian and education, in particular,  are “small” worlds but it’s remarkable how often I meet people who know somebody who I know or knew - and not necessarily through professional contacts.

For example, I met someone today where we found out we had mutual connection with someone through a conversation about hand-made furniture.

That set me to thinking about the  of “six degrees of separation”

Stanley Milgram was an American researcher in experimental social psychology at Harvard University in Boston, USA. Beginning in 1967, he began a widely-publicized set of experiments to investigate the so-called “small world problem.” This problem was rooted in many of the same observations made decades earlier by Karinthy. That is, Milgram and other researchers of the era were fascinated by the interconnectedness and “social capital” of human networks. While it is unknown how directly Milgram was influenced by Karinthy’s work, the similarities between the two authors are remarkable ^[3]. However, while Karinthy spoke in abstract and fictional terms, Milgram’s experiments provided evidence supporting the claim of a “small world.” His study results showed that people in the United States seemed to be connected by approximately six friendship links, on average. Although Milgram reportedly never used the term “Six Degrees of Separation,” his findings likely contributed to the term’s widespread credence. Since these studies were widely publicized, Stanley Milgram is also, like Karinthy, often attributed as the origin of the notion of Six Degrees.

All too often we focus on our differences and disconnections - if only we could turn that on its head and concentrate on the connections that bind us all together.