(NASDAQ:FB)
• BY RAMONA MARSHALL
• The common perception that people from elite social class have more friends abroad is probably wrong as according to Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) data, wealthy people tend to keep their friendship circle with in their home countries.
The research carried out by both Facebook and University of Cambridge, finds a connection between person’s social and financial status and the level of internationalism in their social circle.
“The findings point to the possibility that the wealthy stay more in their own social bubble but this is unlikely to be ultimately beneficial. If you are not engaging internationally then you will miss out on that international resource that flow of new ideas and information,” explained study co-author Dr Aleksandr Spectre from Cambridge.
It means elite class individuals are less dependent on others as they are better equipped with resources so are less socially engaged as a result.
The study was spread in two phases, first local and second global. The global study used a dataset of billions of Facebook friendships.
For the first study, the team recruited 857 people and asked them to self access their social status and it was found that low-social class people have nearly 50 percent more international friends than high-social class people.
For the second study, the “global”, the team approached Facebook directly, who provided data on every friendship formed over the network in every country in the world at the national aggregate level for 2011. All data was anonymous. The dataset included over 57 billion friendships.
The findings again established a negative correlation between social classes, this time on a national level and the percentage of Facebook friends from other countries. It showed people from low-social class countries hold more international friendships on average than people living in the countries of high-social class.
“The results could also be highlighting a mechanism of how the modern era might facilitate a closing of the inequality gap, as those from lower social classes take advantage of platforms like Facebook to increase their social capital beyond national borders,” Dr Spectre said.
