Applying Network Theory to Personal Relationships

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1. 31 July 2026 · corrected by Emir Baycan

   A review of the researcher biographies and empirical studies sections of this article on network theory found that the great majority of its content was accurate. Five smaller issues were found: an imprecise citation count, an oversimplified researcher career timeline, a mischaracterized statistical relationship in a 2022 study, one incorrect percentage in a well-known obesity study, and a compensation figure that could not be verified in its cited source.

   What the page claimed

   The article stated Mark Granovetter's famous 1973 paper has been cited 'over 65,000 times' with more precision than the real, database-dependent figure supports; described Robin Dunbar as being at the University of Oxford throughout the period when his research on Dunbar's Number was conducted, without noting he was actually at University College London and the University of Liverpool during much of that work; described a 2022 Science study on LinkedIn weak ties as finding a flat 'approximately 2 percent' increase in job mobility per additional weak tie, when the study actually found a more complex, non-linear relationship; gave a 45 percent figure for how much having an obese friend increases one's own obesity odds, when the real, well-known 2007 study found 57 percent; and cited a '43 percent higher compensation' figure from a 2004 study on structural holes that could not be verified against that paper, which instead reports the relationship in different statistical terms.

   What was corrected

   The section now describes Granovetter's citation count in accurate general terms, correctly describes Dunbar's career path across multiple institutions during the period the research was conducted, accurately describes the 2022 LinkedIn study's real non-linear finding, corrects the obesity study's first-degree figure to 57 percent, and describes the compensation finding in the 2004 structural-holes study in terms that match what the paper actually reports.

   Why: Web searches confirmed the large majority of this article's researcher biographies and empirical findings were accurate, with a small number of specific figures and framings that did not match the real, verifiable sources. Each was corrected while preserving the real researchers, studies, and general conclusions, which remain well supported by the literature.

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