friend of a friend
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In
sociology Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of Empirical ...
, a friend of a friend is a human contact that exists because of a mutual friend. Person C is a friend of a friend of person A when there is a person B that is a
friend Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. In some cultures, the concept of ...
of both A and C. Thus the human relation "friend of a friend" is a compound relation among friends, similar to the
uncle An uncle is usually defined as a male relative who is a sibling of a parent or married to a sibling of a parent. Uncles who are related by birth are second-degree relatives. The female counterpart of an uncle is an aunt, and the reciprocal relat ...
and
aunt An aunt is a woman who is a sibling of a parent or married to a sibling of a parent. Aunts who are related by birth are second-degree relatives. Known alternate terms include auntie or aunty. Children in other cultures and families may refer ...
relations of
kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
. Though friendship is a reciprocal relation, the relation of a friend of a friend may not be a friendship, though it holds potential for coalition building and dissemination of information.


Balance theory

The tendency of a friend of a friend to become a friend was noted by
Fritz Heider Fritz Heider (19 February 1896 – 2 January 1988) was an Austrian psychologist whose work was related to the Gestalt school. In 1958 he published ''The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations'', which expanded upon his creations of balance theory a ...
, though he also considered the possibility that one of the friendships might breakdown, according to ''balance theory'', which his view of human triangles is called. According to Heider, the friend of a friend contact could be stressful enough to undermine one or another of the friendships. Extending the study of social dynamics caused by such friend-of-a-friend tensions to social networks beyond triangles,
Dorwin Cartwright Dorwin Philip Cartwright (March 3, 1915 – July 18, 2008) was an American social psychologist, and considered one of the founders of the field of group dynamics. Cartwright's research and writing topics included the mathematical foundations of gro ...
and
Frank Harary Frank Harary (March 11, 1921 – January 4, 2005) was an American mathematician, who specialized in graph theory. He was widely recognized as one of the "fathers" of modern graph theory. Harary was a master of clear exposition and, together with ...
used
signed graph In the area of graph theory in mathematics, a signed graph is a graph in which each edge has a positive or negative sign. A signed graph is balanced if the product of edge signs around every cycle is positive. The name "signed graph" and the no ...
s to indicate positive or negative sentiments between persons. In 1963
Anatol Rapoport Anatol Rapoport ( uk, Анатолій Борисович Рапопо́рт; russian: Анато́лий Бори́сович Рапопо́рт; May 22, 1911January 20, 2007) was an American mathematical psychologist. He contributed to general ...
summarized the theory: "The hypothesis implies roughly that attitudes of the group members will change is such a way that one's friends' friends will tend to become one's friends, ..." In September 1975
Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...
offered a symposium on these dynamics. Bo Anderson made an analysis of the friend-of-a-friend relationship in connection with his criticism of balance theory. :We have all encountered cases in which somebody has said, "You should meet so-and-so", only to find that we have little in common with that person, even though he or she was introduced to us by a mutual friend...In ''some'' friendships the persons value the exclusiveness of their relationship and are therefore not likely to let others into it. Friends differ from acquaintances in that they are not merely slots in a grid of social network relationships, but are valued for their personal, ''unique'' qualities. Hence, when I relate to a friend of a friend, I need to know something about the perceptions and exchanges that make up this friendship. My reaction to my friend's friend (or spouse) may even be ''unfavorable'', although I may ''also'' well understand and sympathize with my friend’s affection for her, given ''his'' needs, perceptions, interests and so on. Considering
friendship Friendship is a relationship of mutual affection between people. It is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than an "acquaintance" or an "association", such as a classmate, neighbor, coworker, or colleague. In some cultures, the concept o ...
between people to be a
binary relation In mathematics, a binary relation associates elements of one set, called the ''domain'', with elements of another set, called the ''codomain''. A binary relation over Set (mathematics), sets and is a new set of ordered pairs consisting of ele ...
, the connection to a friend of a friend is a
composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...
of the relationship with itself. Composed relations are used to describe
kinship In anthropology, kinship is the web of social relationships that form an important part of the lives of all humans in all societies, although its exact meanings even within this discipline are often debated. Anthropologist Robin Fox says that ...
, so it may be natural to apply composition to friendship. One consequence is that frequently a person's friends have more friends than him (the
friendship paradox The friendship paradox is the phenomenon first observed by the sociologist Scott L. Feld in 1991 that most people have fewer friends than their friends have, on average. It can be explained as a form of sampling bias in which people with more frie ...
), which accents the reach of the compound connection. But the fact that friendship is not automatically a
transitive relation In mathematics, a relation on a set is transitive if, for all elements , , in , whenever relates to and to , then also relates to . Each partial order as well as each equivalence relation needs to be transitive. Definition A homog ...
produces some social dynamics.


Meme

Friend of a friend (FOAF) is a phrase used to refer to someone that one does not know well, literally, a friend of a friend. In some
social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...
, the phrase is used as a half-joking shorthand for the fact that much of the information on which people act comes from distant sources (as in "It happened to a friend of a friend of mine") and cannot be confirmed. It is probably best known from
urban legend An urban legend (sometimes contemporary legend, modern legend, urban myth, or urban tale) is a genre of folklore comprising stories or fallacious claims circulated as true, especially as having happened to a "friend of a friend" or a family m ...
studies, where it was popularized by
Jan Harold Brunvand Jan Harold Brunvand (born March 23, 1933) is a retired American folklorist, researcher, writer, public speaker, and professor emeritus of English at the University of Utah. Brunvand is best known for popularizing the concept of the urban legend, ...
. The acronym ''FOAF'' was coined by
Rodney Dale Rodney A.M. Dale (28 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was an English author, editor, publisher, and a co-founder and former member of Cambridge Consultants Ltd. He wrote principally on non-fiction topics (biography, technology, computing, jaz ...
and used in his 1978 book ''The Tumour in the Whale: A Collection of Modern Myths''.


Other languages

* "Dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi" (Irish proverb) – similar
Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...
term literally meaning ''a woman told me that a woman told her that...'' * "L'homme qui a vu l'homme qui a vu l'ours" (French proverb) – similar
French language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...
proverb literally meaning ''The man who saw the man who saw the bear'', in which the bear is never seen, only heard of. * "Un amigo me dijo que un amigo le dijo..." (Spanish proverb) – meaning literally ''A friend told me that a friend told him that...'' *"Jedna paní povídala..." (Czech proverb) – similar
Czech language Czech (; Czech ), historically also Bohemian (; ''lingua Bohemica'' in Latin), is a West Slavic language of the Czech–Slovak group, written in Latin script. Spoken by over 10 million people, it serves as the official language of the Czech Re ...
proverb literally meaning ''One lady said...'' * "Teman kepada teman saya..."
Bahasa Indonesia Indonesian ( ) is the official and national language of Indonesia. It is a standardized variety of Malay, an Austronesian language that has been used as a lingua franca in the multilingual Indonesian archipelago for centuries. Indonesia is t ...
; literally meaning ''friend of my friend''. * "Babaturana babaturan urang..." Basa Sunda; literally meaning ''friend of my friend''. There is another version of this phrase in Sundanese language, "''Babaturan dulur urang''", which means "friend of my relatives". * "카더라..."
Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...
;
Gyeongsang dialect The Gyeongsang dialects (also spelled Kyŏngsang), or Southeastern Korean, are dialects of the Korean language of the Yeongnam region, which includes both Gyeongsang provinces, North and South. There are approximately 13,000,000 speakers. Unlik ...
word literally meaning ''Who said that...'' * "Diz-se que..." or "Dizem que..."
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
; literally meaning ''It is said that...'' or ''They say that...'' * "Freundesfreund"
German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...
; literally meaning ''a friend's friend'' * "Umgani womgani wami"
IsiZulu language Zulu (), or isiZulu as an endonym, is a Southern Bantu languages, Southern Bantu language of the Nguni languages, Nguni branch spoken in Southern Africa. It is the language of the Zulu people, with about 12 million native speakers, who primaril ...
; meaning ''my friend's friend'' *"朋友的朋友" or "我的friend的friend"
Cantonese Cantonese ( zh, t=廣東話, s=广东话, first=t, cy=Gwóngdūng wá) is a language within the Chinese (Sinitic) branch of the Sino-Tibetan languages originating from the city of Guangzhou (historically known as Canton) and its surrounding are ...
/
Hong Kong English Hong Kong English is a variety of the English language native to Hong Kong. The variant is either a learner interlanguage or emergent variant, primarily a result of Hong Kong's British overseas territory history and the influence of native ...
; meaning ''my friend's friend'' *"Itshomi ye tshomi yam"
isiXhosa language Xhosa (, ) also isiXhosa as an endonym, is a Nguni language and one of the official languages of South Africa and Zimbabwe. Xhosa is spoken as a first language by approximately 8.2 million people and by another 11 million as a secon ...
; meaning "friend of a friend"


Web ontology language

In
information science Information science (also known as information studies) is an academic field which is primarily concerned with analysis, collection, Categorization, classification, manipulation, storage, information retrieval, retrieval, movement, dissemin ...
, an
ontology In metaphysics, ontology is the philosophical study of being, as well as related concepts such as existence, becoming, and reality. Ontology addresses questions like how entities are grouped into categories and which of these entities exis ...
describes categories, properties and relations between concepts, data and entities. The phrase "Friend Of A Friend", converted to the acronym FAOF, has been adopted in
Web Ontology Language The Web Ontology Language (OWL) is a family of knowledge representation languages for authoring ontologies. Ontologies are a formal way to describe taxonomies and classification networks, essentially defining the structure of knowledge for variou ...
. It has been used in
WebID WebID is a method for internet services and members to know who they are communicating with. The WebID specifications define a set oto prepare the process of standardization for identity, identification and authentication on HTTP-based networks. We ...
for identifying correspondents, and to designate a secure authentication protocol.Foaf+ssl
at
W3.org The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. Founded in 1994 and led by Tim Berners-Lee, the consortium is made up of member organizations that maintain full-time staff working to ...


See also

*
Composition of relations In the mathematics of binary relations, the composition of relations is the forming of a new binary relation from two given binary relations ''R'' and ''S''. In the calculus of relations, the composition of relations is called relative multiplica ...
*
Interpersonal ties In social network analysis and mathematical sociology, interpersonal ties are defined as information-carrying connections between people. Interpersonal ties, generally, come in three varieties: ''strong'', ''weak'' or ''absent''. Weak social ti ...
*
Six degrees of separation Six degrees of separation is the idea that all people are six or fewer social connections away from each other. As a result, a chain of "friend of a friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps. It is also k ...


References

{{Urban legends Friendship Social networks Urban legends