Tamarit Ignacio, Sánchez Angel, Cuesta José A
Grupo Interdisciplinar de Sistemas Complejos, Departamento de Matemáticas, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, 28911, Leganés, Madrid, Spain.
Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI), University of Zaragoza, 50018, Zaragoza, Spain.
Sci Rep. 2022 Feb 10;12(1):2287. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-06066-1.
We discuss the structure of human relationship patterns in terms of a new formalism that allows to study resource allocation problems where the cost of the resource may take continuous values. This is in contrast with the main focus of previous studies where relationships were classified in a few, discrete layers (known as Dunbar's circles) with the cost being the same within each layer. We show that with our continuum approach we can identify a parameter [Formula: see text] that is the equivalent of the ratio of relationships between adjacent circles in the discrete case, with a value [Formula: see text]. We confirm this prediction using three different datasets coming from phone records, face-to-face contacts, and interactions in Facebook. As the sample size increases, the distributions of estimated parameters smooth around the predicted value of [Formula: see text]. The existence of a characteristic value of the parameter at the population level indicates that the model is capturing a seemingly universal feature on how humans manage relationships. Our analyses also confirm earlier results showing the existence of social signatures arising from having to allocate finite resources into different relationships, and that the structure of online personal networks mirrors those in the off-line world.
我们依据一种新的形式体系来探讨人际关系模式的结构，该形式体系能够用于研究资源分配问题，其中资源成本可以取连续值。这与先前研究的主要关注点形成对比，在先前研究中，人际关系被分为几个离散的层次（即所谓的邓巴圈），且每层内的成本相同。我们表明，通过我们的连续统方法，能够确定一个参数[公式：见正文]，它等同于离散情形下相邻圈层之间关系的比率，其值为[公式：见正文]。我们使用来自电话记录、面对面接触以及脸书互动的三个不同数据集证实了这一预测。随着样本量的增加，估计参数的分布在预测值[公式：见正文]周围变得平滑。在总体层面上该参数存在特征值，这表明该模型正在捕捉人类管理人际关系方式中一个看似普遍的特征。我们的分析还证实了早期结果，即表明存在因必须将有限资源分配到不同关系中而产生的社会特征，并且在线个人网络的结构反映了线下世界的结构。
