Predictability of social connections over time

This paper contributes to a developed theory of social networks by elaborating one basic proposition: that social connections attract each other as a regular function of network parameters such as ‘structural strength’ (number of common links) and “distance” (length of minimal path of linkage).

Abstract

A developed theory of social networks would potentially provide predictive and explanatory models for social processes at the most general level. The paper contributes to such a theory by elaborating one basic proposition: that social connections attract each other as a regular function of network parameters such as 'structural strength' (number of common links) and 'distance' (length of minimal path of linkage). The proposition is tested on longitudinal data from three locality-based networks.