IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/osfxxx/ytd63_v1.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The not-so-forbidden triad: Evaluating the assumptions of The Strength of Weak Ties

Author

Listed:
  • Neal, Zachary P.

Abstract

The Strength of Weak Ties is among the most influential social theories of the past 50 years. However, its prediction that weak ties are especially useful for obtaining novel information is sometimes not supported. To understand why, I investigate whether social networks typically satisfy the theory's assumptions, and whether the theory's prediction is robust to violations of its assumptions. First, examining a diverse corpus of 56 empirical social networks, I show that empirical social networks (nearly) satisfy some but not all of the theory's assumptions. Second, using a simulation of information diffusion, I show that the predicted utility of weak ties is not robust to violations of these assumptions. When the assumptions of the theory are violated, as is common in social networks, access to novel information depends on bridging ties, regardless of their strength. Moreover, when they exist, strong bridges (i.e., bridges with high bandwidth) are more useful than weak bridges (i.e., bridges with low bandwidth). I conclude by recommending that research applying this theory should first consider whether its assumptions are satisfied, and that a tie's strength and bridgeness should be measured and modeled independently.

Suggested Citation

  • Neal, Zachary P., 2023. "The not-so-forbidden triad: Evaluating the assumptions of The Strength of Weak Ties," OSF Preprints ytd63_v1, Center for Open Science.
  • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:ytd63_v1
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/ytd63_v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/6425998097253002cafd354f/
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/ytd63_v1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gerhard G. Van De Bunt & Marijtje A.J. Van Duijn & Tom A.B. Snijders, 1999. "Friendship Networks Through Time: An Actor-Oriented Dynamic Statistical Network Model," Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory, Springer, vol. 5(2), pages 167-192, July.
    2. Jay J. Van Bavel & Katherine Baicker & Paulo S. Boggio & Valerio Capraro & Aleksandra Cichocka & Mina Cikara & Molly J. Crockett & Alia J. Crum & Karen M. Douglas & James N. Druckman & John Drury & Oe, 2020. "Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 4(5), pages 460-471, May.
    3. van der Leij Marco & Goyal Sanjeev, 2011. "Strong Ties in a Small World," Review of Network Economics, De Gruyter, vol. 10(2), pages 1-22, June.
    4. Gee, Laura K. & Jones, Jason J. & Fariss, Christopher J. & Burke, Moira & Fowler, James H., 2017. "The paradox of weak ties in 55 countries," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 362-372.
    5. Epstein, Joshua M., 2006. "Remarks on the Foundations of Agent-Based Generative Social Science," Handbook of Computational Economics, in: Leigh Tesfatsion & Kenneth L. Judd (ed.), Handbook of Computational Economics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 34, pages 1585-1604, Elsevier.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chakraborty, Shankha & Papageorgiou, Chris & Pérez Sebastián, Fidel, 2010. "Diseases, infection dynamics, and development," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 57(7), pages 859-872, October.
    2. Wanja Wolff & Corinna S. Martarelli & Julia Schüler & Maik Bieleke, 2020. "High Boredom Proneness and Low Trait Self-Control Impair Adherence to Social Distancing Guidelines during the COVID-19 Pandemic," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-10, July.
    3. Rose, Damaris & Stavrova, Olga, 2019. "Does life satisfaction predict reemployment? Evidence form German panel data," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 1-11.
    4. Rabia Bokhari & Khurram Shahzad, 2022. "Explaining Resistance to the COVID-19 Preventive Measures: A Psychological Reactance Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-23, April.
    5. Vivek Shastry & D Cale Reeves & Nicholas Willems & Varun Rai, 2022. "Policy and behavioral response to shock events: An agent-based model of the effectiveness and equity of policy design features," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 17(1), pages 1-21, January.
    6. Sonika Redhu & Pragati Jain, 2024. "Unveiling the nexus between water scarcity and socioeconomic development in the water-scarce countries," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(8), pages 19557-19577, August.
    7. Chunhao Wei & Han Chen & Yee Ming Lee, 2022. "COVID-19 preventive measures and restaurant customers’ intention to dine out: the role of brand trust and perceived risk," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 16(3), pages 581-600, September.
    8. Yiting Guo & Jason Shachat & Matthew J. Walker & Lijia Wei, 2021. "Viral social media videos can raise pro-social behaviours when an epidemic arises," Journal of the Economic Science Association, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 7(2), pages 120-138, December.
    9. Marijn H. C. Meijers & Christin Scholz & Ragnheiður “Heather” Torfadóttir & Anke Wonneberger & Marko Markov, 2022. "Learning from the COVID-19 pandemic to combat climate change: comparing drivers of individual action in global crises," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 12(2), pages 272-282, June.
    10. Tobias Schlager & Ashley V. Whillans, 2022. "People underestimate the probability of contracting the coronavirus from friends," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-11, December.
    11. Mukesh Kumar Swami & Tanu Gupta, 2021. "Psychological impact of fear-based messages in context of COVID 19," International Journal of Social Psychiatry, , vol. 67(8), pages 1081-1082, December.
    12. Laliotis, Ioannis & Minos, Dimitrios, 2022. "Religion, social interactions, and COVID-19 incidence in Western Germany," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    13. Gerard Ballot & Antoine Mandel & Annick Vignes, 2015. "Agent-based modeling and economic theory: where do we stand?," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 10(2), pages 199-220, October.
    14. Juvalta, Sibylle & Speranza, Camilla & Robin, Dominik & El Maohub, Yassmeen & Krasselt, Julia & Dreesen, Philipp & Dratva, Julia & Suggs, L. Suzanne, 2023. "Young people's media use and adherence to preventive measures in the “infodemic”: Is it masked by political ideology?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 317(C).
    15. Joshua Lospinoso & Michael Schweinberger & Tom Snijders & Ruth Ripley, 2011. "Assessing and accounting for time heterogeneity in stochastic actor oriented models," Advances in Data Analysis and Classification, Springer;German Classification Society - Gesellschaft für Klassifikation (GfKl);Japanese Classification Society (JCS);Classification and Data Analysis Group of the Italian Statistical Society (CLADAG);International Federation of Classification Societies (IFCS), vol. 5(2), pages 147-176, July.
    16. Hubert, Philipp & Abdel Hadi, Sascha & Mojzisch, Andreas & Häusser, Jan Alexander, 2022. "The effects of organizational climate on adherence to guidelines for COVID-19 prevention," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    17. Hamza Umer, 2023. "Stability of pro-sociality and trust amid the Covid-19: panel data from the Netherlands," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 50(1), pages 255-287, February.
    18. Quan-Hoang Vuong & Tam-Tri Le & Viet-Phuong La & Huyen Thanh Thanh Nguyen & Manh-Toan Ho & Quy Khuc & Minh-Hoang Nguyen, 2022. "Covid-19 vaccines production and societal immunization under the serendipity-mindsponge-3D knowledge management theory and conceptual framework," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-12, December.
    19. Pierre Genest & Léo Trespeuch, 2022. "Internet users’ perception about the impact of the pandemic on sports sponsorship [La perception des internautes face à l'impact de la pandémie sur le mécénat sportif]," Working Papers hal-03945701, HAL.
    20. Tianshu Sun & Sean J. Taylor, 2020. "Displaying things in common to encourage friendship formation: A large randomized field experiment," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 237-271, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:ytd63_v1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://osf.io/preprints/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.