{"id":676515,"date":"2025-06-21T12:30:22","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T09:30:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/a-clear-understanding-of-connections-matters-more-than-popularity-study-suggests\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T12:30:22","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T09:30:22","slug":"a-clear-understanding-of-connections-matters-more-than-popularity-study-suggests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/a-clear-understanding-of-connections-matters-more-than-popularity-study-suggests\/","title":{"rendered":"A clear understanding of connections matters more than popularity, study suggests"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_85 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3cc600e3bd4\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a3cc600e3bd4\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/a-clear-understanding-of-connections-matters-more-than-popularity-study-suggests\/#Measuring_influence\" >Measuring influence<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<div>\n<div class=\"article-gallery lightGallery\">\n<div data-thumb=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/tmb\/2019\/socialnetwork.jpg\" data-src=\"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/hires\/2019\/socialnetwork.jpg\" data-sub-html=\"Credit: CC0 Public Domain\">\n<figure class=\"article-img\">\n            <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/scx1.b-cdn.net\/csz\/news\/800a\/2019\/socialnetwork.jpg\" alt=\"social network\" title=\"Credit: CC0 Public Domain\" width=\"800\" height=\"504\"\/><figcaption class=\"text-darken text-low-up text-truncate-js text-truncate mt-3\">\n                Credit: CC0 Public Domain<br \/>\n            <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Climbing the <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/social-mediaa\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"1\" title=\"Social Media\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social<\/a> ladder isn&#8217;t simply a matter of popularity. Rather, people in positions of influence are particularly adept at forming &#8220;maps&#8221; of their social connections, which they navigate to become prominent in their social network, new research shows.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s like having a &#8220;social superpower,&#8221; according to study author Oriel FeldmanHall, an associate professor of cognitive and psychological <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/sciencee\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"5\" title=\"Science\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">science<\/a>s at Brown University who is affiliated with the University&#8217;s Carney Institute for Brain Science.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;People vary considerably in how accurately they understand the structure of their communities,&#8221; FeldmanHall said. &#8220;Our research establishes for the first time that people who excel at m<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a>ing out their social network\u2014determining who belongs to which communities and cliques\u2014are the ones who will go on to become the most influential in the social network.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The study is <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/sciadv.ads2133\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Science Advances<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p>Contrary to popular belief, being influential isn&#8217;t determined by the number of friends a person has, according to the research team.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What matters are your connections to other well-connected peers,&#8221; said study author Isabella Aslarus, who conducted the research as a manager in FeldmanHall&#8217;s lab. &#8220;These more powerful social ties give you a number of benefits that together add up to what we call influence.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Those benefits can range from being perceived more positively to influencing positive outcomes for others, according to Aslarus, who is now a Ph.D. student in psychology at Stanford University.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Influential individuals hold sway over others&#8217; actions and are better at spreading information through their networks\u2014a power that&#8217;s been harnessed by interventions to reduce bullying and promote public health,&#8221; Aslarus said.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Measuring_influence\"><\/span>Measuring influence<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>To understand how people ascend to influential positions, the researchers focused on a real-world, complex and evolving social network: first-year undergraduate students at Brown University.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When students arrive on campus, they have no friends,&#8221; FeldmanHall said. &#8220;But by winter break, they have a rich social world where many friendships have been created and other ties have dissolved. By studying members of the Class of 2026 living in three first-year dorms, my team was able to observe a brand-new social network as it developed.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Over the course of the academic year, the team conducted six assessments with approximately 200 participants who opted to join the study. At each check-in, they gave the students a &#8220;friendship survey&#8221; where each identified their friends within the study group. To track the evolving social network, the researchers created graphs of these developing connections.<\/p>\n<p>People in the center of the graphs had the largest number of connections to other well-connected peers. At the edges of the graphs were those with fewer friends, who also had fewer ties. By the end of the academic year, the researchers found that the students in the &#8220;influential&#8221; center spots were different from those who had held those positions in the beginning of the year.<\/p>\n<p>How did those individuals move into positions of influence? The answer has to do with how they conceptualized their network, researchers found.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ads w-100 my-4 article-main__more bg-light p-3 border\" aria-hidden=\"true\">\n<p class=\"mb-3\">\n        Discover the latest in science, tech, and space with over <strong>100,000 subscribers<\/strong> who rely on Phys.org for daily insights.<br \/>\n        Sign up for our <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sciencex.com\/help\/newsletter\/\" target=\"_blank\">free newsletter<\/a> and get updates on breakthroughs,<br \/>\n        innovations, and research that matter\u2014<strong>daily or weekly<\/strong>.\n    <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The research team gave students a second survey called a &#8220;network knowledge task.&#8221; Participants were shown pairs of photos of fellow students and asked to identify whether they were friends. The responses helped the researchers measure the participants&#8217; knowledge about other friendships in the network, including those far removed from their own inner circles.<\/p>\n<p>The researchers found that those who were &#8220;influential&#8221; by the end of the academic year had demonstrated the strongest knowledge of the network&#8217;s evolving structure. They had a bird&#8217;s-eye view of the communities and cliques within the network, above and beyond their knowledge of individual friendships.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Participants often told us that it felt like they were just guessing who was friends with whom,&#8221; Aslarus said. &#8220;But in reality, some individuals are remarkably perceptive of the structure of their social world, and over time, this knowledge enables them to end up at its center.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-main__more p-4\">\n<p><strong>More information:<\/strong><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tIsabella Aslarus et al, Early insight into social network structure predicts climbing the social ladder, <i>Science Advances<\/i> (2025). <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-doi=\"1\" href=\"https:\/\/dx.doi.org\/10.1126\/sciadv.ads2133\" target=\"_blank\">DOI: 10.1126\/sciadv.ads2133<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"d-inline-block text-medium mt-4\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tProvided by<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tBrown University<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"icon_open\" href=\"http:\/\/www.brown.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<svg>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<use href=\"https:\/\/phys.b-cdn.net\/tmpl\/v6\/img\/svg\/sprite.svg#icon_open\" x=\"0\" y=\"0\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/svg><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- print only --><\/p>\n<div class=\"d-none d-print-block\">\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<strong>Citation<\/strong>:<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tClimbing the social ladder: A clear understanding of connections matters more than popularity, study suggests (2025, June 20)<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tretrieved 21 June 2025<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tfrom https:\/\/phys.org\/<a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">news<\/a>\/2025-06-climbing-social-ladder-popularity.html\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script id=\"facebook-jssdk\" async=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/sdk.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMN63nwsw68G3Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more Like this articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/category\/sciencee\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Science category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2025-06-climbing-social-ladder-popularity.html\" target=\"_blank\" >Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Credit: CC0 Public Domain Climbing the social ladder isn&#8217;t simply a matter of popularity. Rather, people in positions of influence are particularly adept at forming &#8220;maps&#8221; of their social connections, which they navigate to become prominent in their social network, new research shows. It&#8217;s like having a &#8220;social superpower,&#8221; according to study author Oriel FeldmanHall,&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":676516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/scx2.b-cdn.net\/gfx\/news\/hires\/2019\/socialnetwork.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-676515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sciencee"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=676515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}