Friendship paradox

High school (ages 12+)
Mathematics & Numbers

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/friendship-paradox

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the formalized by?Sociologist Scott L. Feld in 1991
2. What is the key explanatory factor?Sampling bias: individuals with higher degrees are disproportionately likely to be sampled
3. Why do my friends seem to have more friends than me?Because people with many friends are more likely to be in our friend lists, so we see more connected friends.
4. Who first talked about the Friendship Paradox?A sociologist named Scott L. Feld explained it in 1991.

Network Topology: The arrangement and interconnection of nodes and edges within a network structure.
Sampling Bias: A systematic error introduced into sampling when some members of the population are less likely to be included than others.
Node Degree: The number of connections (edges) attached to a node (individual) in a network.
Social Network Analysis: The study of social structures through the use of networks and graph theory.