Triadic Closure

From Megastarmedia

Template:Expand Triadic closure is a concept in social network theory, first suggested by German sociologist Georg Simmel in the early 1900s.

Triadic closure was made popular by Mark Granovetter in his 1973 article The Strength of Weak Ties. There he synthesized the theory of cognitive balance first introduced by Heider in 1946 with a Simmelian understanding of social networks. In general terms, cognitive balance refers to the propensity of two individuals to want to feel the same way about an object. If the triad of three individuals is not closed, then the person connected to both of the individuals will want to close this triad in order to achieve closure in the relationship network.