In 1973, Mark Granovetter reported in a paper titled “the strength of weak ties” that acquaintance and weak ties are more effective – be it creativity or getting jobs. As a definition: strong ties are between densely knit close friends, whereas weak links are between people with infrequent interaction and a lack of any emotional connection. He hypothesised that the diversity of information and ideas inside the “diffused” network (as against close-knit groups) of people was responsible for such observations.
While it remained a paradox and got support from many subsequent studies, the confounding of two parameters – the number and the strength of bonds – was not apparent in these studies. A 2017 work that looked at 17 million social ties from Facebook users concluded that the usefulness of weak ties arises because of the sheer number. In other words, while the probability of getting something (a new idea or a job) helpful from weak connections may remain low, the numbers are overwhelmingly larger than strong relationships; the former get the overall advantage.
Granovetter, M. S., American Journal of Sociology, 1973, 78, 1360
Gee, L.K. et al. / Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 2017, 133, 362
