Communication and Social Networks (Spring 2021)/Social Search Assignment

Social Search

We've read about how people in Stanley Milgram's experiments used their personal networks to find a target person. You're going to use your personal networks to find a Purdue student who has a driver’s license from Hawaii. If you personally have one, you’ll need to find someone else that has one too. If you have to ask people, please keep track of the people you contact, and make a diagram of your search. You should only contact people that you know on a first-name basis and that know you on a first-name basis (and not other people who are in this class!).

In order to make this as similar as possible to the original study, you should use one-to-one communication (i.e., don't post something on Facebook or ask on a group text/chat).

Write up a brief report of your experience, including the following information:

1) Include your search diagram.

2) How many fresh starts were there in your search?

3) How many people were involved in total?

4) What was the longest search chain that you had?

5) How long was the chain – measured in links – that ultimately lead you to a target person?

6) What strategy did you use in your search? When writing up your search strategy, try to describe them in terms of ideas that we have learned about in class.