14 DAY TRIAL // You are probably familiar with the butterfly effect theory, or you might have seen the movie, but you should know that there is also a social butterfly effect.
The butterfly effect is a theory that basically says that small differences in the initial condition of a dynamical system can cause large variations in the long term behavior of the system – like for example a butterfly flapping its wings in South America can affect the weather in Central Park.
The social butterfly effect is the way that we change our friends throughout our lives, and a team of scientists from the University of Southampton, along with Royal Holloway, University of London and the Institute of Zoology at London Zoo, have been carrying a research on the matter.
They analyzed the fact that despite the ephemeral nature of human relationships, people frequently form circles of friends that are often friendly with each other (called cliques).
Understanding this phenomenon could offer insight into why our society is made up of so many groups, whether it is in politics or in sports.
Dr Seth Bullock from the School of Electronics and Computer Science at the University of Southampton said that “the study looks at how we often form friendships with people who are similar with us in some way.
“This could mean having a similar profession, interest, hobby, religion or political affiliation.
“It showed how cliques form around common shared interests, such as being fans of the same football club or the latest pop sensation on the X Factor, or perhaps more controversially, having similar opinions on politics.”
The researchers tried to understand the way that groups are formed with a society by building a computer model of a social network.
“This work is interesting because it's one of the first to study social networks where connections between people change,” explained Dr John Bryden from Royal Holloway, University of London.
“As online social networks have become popular, so scientists have increasingly studied human interaction using networks.”
He adds that “the study could have broad implications.
“Networks with changing connections are quite common in the natural world, from molecules to brain cells, and many of these networks also form groups.”
In the computer model, individuals form and break friendship links with others, with no restrictions.
Dr Sebastian Funk from the School of Biological Sciences at Royal Holloway, now at the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, said that they “changed the model so that individuals tended to form links with similar others and we saw the cliques start to form.”
Another aspect analyzed by the study was what happened when people's interests change, like someone that could find a new interest or friends that could influence one another.
“It was fascinating to see how the cliques could form without any one person organizing everything,” Dr Bullock added.
“We saw individuals moving from one clique to another.
“Over time some cliques disappeared while new ones were established.”
“New cliques tended to either fail very quickly or grow and persist for a much longer time, with very few in between,” added Dr Funk.
The study, was published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.