The Friendship Paradox: On Average, Your Friends Have More Friends Than You Do
Proven by sociologist Scott Feld in 1991, this statistical quirk holds true for the vast majority of people in any social network.
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📊 Statistics & Odds
American Journal of Sociology (JSTOR)
Key Metric+20 XP
In what year did Scott Feld publish his paper proving the Friendship Paradox?
Your guess:0
Key Insight
Individuals with many connections appear in more friend lists, skewing the average upward.
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📊 Statistics
Statistics & Odds
⚡ 20s51 words
Why / How?
01
Scientific Mechanism
This occurs due to sampling bias: people with many friends are far more likely to appear in someone else's friend list. When you average the friend counts of your own friends, highly connected hubs skew that average upward.
02
Why It Matters
Individuals with many connections appear in more friend lists, skewing the average upward.
Verified Source
American Journal of Sociology (JSTOR)