Network Distance

Network distance refers to the distance between pairs of actors or players in a given network. Network distance is an important concept in the field of social network analysis (SNA), which is an essential subject in social science research design. However, before delving into the details of network distance and its measurement in SNA, this article begins with a well-known example of a social science study of network distance, which has been drawing great interest from the scientific community as well as the general public.

The study is called the small world experiment, which is perhaps one of the earliest social science studies to investigate the network distance between people. To determine the connectivity of any random pairs of people in the United States, social psychologist ...