Tie Strength

CHAPTER 5

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 Tie Strength
Social Relationships are also multifaceted, and many relationship types can be used in social network
analysis. One of the most useful is the idea of tie strength.
Tie strength is a measure of the strength of a relationship between people.
The concept was introduced by Mark Granovetter in 1973.
He asserted that “the strength of a tie is a combination of the amount of time, the emotional intensity,
the intimacy (mutual confiding), and the reciprocal services which characterize the tie”.
Granovetter defined two main types: strong ties and weak ties.
Strong ties are rare and are usually family members or very close friends.
Weak ties are much more common and include acquaintances and more casual friendships.
There is a spectrum of tie strength, and any relationship may fall along the scale from weak to strong.

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 Tie Types
People with whom someone has no meaningful relationship, are not considered in the spectrum of strong
or weak, since there is not much of any relationship present.
These are sometimes called a Absent ties and would not appear as edges in the social network.
Tie strength is a very important factor to consider in social network analysis.
Consider the flow of information through a network. Weak ties often connect to diverse groups of people
with different perspectives. These ties allow information to move throughout the network. Strong ties are
more trusted, and their information is more likely to be reliable.
Considering the spread of other things through a network, like a disease. Someone is more likely to catch
a cold from a weak tie. But because of the high level of close contact, it will likely spread quickly to one’s
strongest connections.
Weak ties may provide highly trusted information; for example, a physician may be more trusted about
medical information than someone’s family members.

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 The role of tie strength
One of the first efforts to understand the importance of tie strength was Granovetter’s study on how people
get jobs.
He published the results of the study in his paper,“ The Strength of Weak Ties”(1973),and again in greater
depth in his book Getting a Job (1974). His research studied men in a Boston suburb. Through interviews and
surveys, he looked at how they found or received information when they changed jobs.
Every case has at least one weak relationship link—an old friend, a neighbor of the family, or someone met at
a party.
The social connections of weak ties are more diverse and provide access to a much broader range of
information and people than strong ties. They are also much more plentiful than strong ties.
Weak ties are important in ways beyond the spread of information. They also play an important role in how
organizations and groups function.

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 Strong Vs Weak Ties
Both types of ties have their benefits.
Because people linked by strong ties see one another frequently and interact on a deep level, they are
motivated to help one another, put effort into the relationship, and behave in a trustworthy way.
Weak ties, on the other hand, do not have these motivations, but they do provide access to a more diverse
set of information and resources. They are also easier connections to form and maintain. This means they
provide an easy and important link to the world outside a person’s core social circle.

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 Measuring tie strength
“the strength of a tie is a (probably linear) combination of the amount of time, the emotional intensity, the
intimacy (mutual confiding), and the reciprocal services which characterize the tie.”
1. Time can include the amount of time people spend with each other, the duration of their relationship and
how frequently they see one another.
2. Emotional intensity is indicated by the closeness of a relationship; close friends or family members are
likely to be strong ties, while more casual friends and acquaintances would be weaker ties.
3. Intimacy, or mutual confiding, relates to people sharing secrets or intimate personal details with one
another . The more of this information they exchange, the closer their relationship is likely to be.
4. Reciprocal Services are favors that people do for one another. They may be personal ,financial ,
professional ,or otherwise.

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 Measuring tie strength..
researchers have investigated what other factors might also play a role in tie strength.
There are several of these factors, but three are more widely accepted as important.
Structural features relate to the social network of the two people in question. Those who have many
mutual friends are likely to have stronger ties.
Social Distance measures how different people’s social situations are. This includes factors like age
difference, race, education, and socioeconomic status. People with strong ties tend to have similar social
attributes.
Emotional Support describes the communication between people that validates their emotions, shows
understanding of their problems, and tries to alleviate stress.

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 Measuring…
These seven factors are not equally important in determining tie strength.
It does not always follow that having many of these factors indicates a strong tie. Example: Roommates.
Natural question to follow is how these factors are measured.
Intimacy, for example, is difficult to quantify, and depending on the context of a relationship, its meaning may
vary.
Indeed, there is no single correct answer for how to measure any of these relationship features.
If measuring them is important, it will depend on the context, the information available, and likely many
other factors.

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 A case study on the variables Gilbert and
Karahalio used to measure tie strength:

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 Tie strength and network structure
 People who have many friends in common are likely to have stronger ties than people with few mutual
friends.
There are many ways that tie strength and network structure are related.
 Strong ties have unique properties within a social network, not randomly scattered throughout the
network, but tendency to appear in clusters.
Pattern of strong ties being densely connected leads to another structural concept called the forbidden
triad.
Alice, Bob, and Chuck. Alice and Bob have a strong tie, and Alice and Chuck also have a strong tie.
What about the relationship with Bob and Chuck? While we cannot draw any absolute conclusions, it is
likely that some sort of tie exists between Bob and Chuck, either strong or weak.
When that tie does not exist, it is known as the Forbidden Triad.

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 Principle 1: Forbidden Triad

o Granovetter named this triad “forbidden”

because of the unlikelihood that no connection
between Bob and Chuck exists.
o One can also think of this structure as
representing something actually forbidden, like
a person (A) who is married (to B) and is also
having an affair (with C).

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 Principle 2: No strong tie is a bridge

P and F have a strong tie connecting them. This is the only edge that connects F’s cluster of nodes to P’s
cluster of nodes, so it is a bridge.
We can form three triads with P, F, and another node where there are two strong ties: PFO, PFH, and PFN.
In these cases, if there is no third connection, we are left with a forbidden triad.
Thus, since several forbidden triads are unexpected, it is very unlikely that a strong tie will ever
be a bridge.
no strong tie is a bridge; while strong ties may be bridges, it is unlikely given what we know about the
distribution of edges.
It is also unlikely that, overtime, a strong tie would remain a bridge. Weak ties would be likely to form
and connect nodes to remove the strong tie’s bridge status.

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 Tie strength and network propagation

Network propagation is a phenomenon where things spread through a network.

 May be diseases spreading through a social network, computer viruses on the Internet, or rumors and fads
through a social network.
For something to spread from one person to another in a network, there needs to be a path between them.
 This can be a direct edge, either a strong or weak tie, or a series of edges between mutual acquaintances.
It will pass from one person to some of his or her neighbors, and from them on to their neighbors.
Many factors play in to how things propagate through networks, and tie strength is one of them.

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 Network Propagation..
Granovetter proposes that as the strength of a tie becomes stronger, the overlap in social circles will
tend to increase.
 If we pass information to our strong ties and if they pass it to their strong ties, it will not go very far;
instead, it is likely to reach people who have already received the message.
If we pass that same information to our weak ties, it has a chance to go farther in the network.

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 Network Propagation…
1. Weak ties are powerful in helping spread information farther through a network, but this is
not to say that strong ties are unimportant.
2. Strong ties tend to be more trustworthy, reliable, and personal.
3. A weak tie may be able to tell a person about many job opportunities, but a strong tie will have a
better idea of what jobs would be a good fit.
4. Strong ties are also more likely to do things to help one another (i.e., reciprocal services).

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Exercise No:2
1. Besides job search, list three tasks where a person might rely on weak ties
to give them important information?
2. Then, list three tasks where strong ties might be better information
sources.
3. Explain why for each.

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