In 1973, Mark Granovetter, a sociology professor at Stanford University, published a paper entitled The Strength of Weak Ties. It went on to become one of the most influential sociology papers of all time. Until then scholars had assumed that an individual's well-being depended mainly on the quality of relationships with close friends and family. Granovetter showed that quantity matters, too. He categories a person's social world as "strong ties" and "weak ties". His central insight was that for new messages and ideas, weak ties are more important to us than strong ones. As Granovetter pointed out, the people whom we often talk to swim in the same pool of information as we do. We depend on acquaintances whom we see infrequently to bring us news of opportunities.
This was the idea behind the Pixar building, the design of which was made by Steve Jobs. The building has a large central hall through which all employees have to pass several times a day. Jobs wanted colleagues to run into each other, grab coffee and have a chat. He believed in the power of these seemingly random conversations to fire up creativity.
Encounters with weak ties can be good for our mental wellbeing, too. Gillian Sandstrom, a senior lecturer in psychology at the University of Essex, investigated the extent to which people get happiness from weak-tie relationships. She found that on days when a participant had a greater number of casual interactions with weak ties – say, a neighbour, a member of yoga class – they experienced more happiness and a greater sense of belonging.
For all these reasons, we should continue to try and find ways to cultivate weak-tie relationships. Sandstrom adds that we can also engage in more weak-tie-style interactions with our strong ties. The goal is to let others know you are thinking of them without asking for a great deal of time, energy or attention.
