Feature

The Ties that Bind are Fraying

by Miller McPherson, Lynn Smith-Lovin, and Matthew Brashears | July 1, 2008 | Summer 2008

How many people have you discussed important issues with over the past six months? Sociologists asked that question in the 1985 and created the first picture of Americans’ networks of confidants. Answers to the same question in 2004 uncovered something remarkable: Americans had one-third fewer confidants than two decades earlier. It seems a close, homogeneous set of social ties may be emerging, focused on the strong bonds of the nuclear family but not those with neighbors or other affiliates.

Authors

Miller McPherson is in the sociology department at Duke University. He studies the connections between social networks and voluntary associations.

Lynn Smith-Lovin is in the sociology department at Duke University. She studies networks, identity, and emotion.

Matthew Brashears is in the sociology department at Cornell University. He studies diffusion and selection in dynamic networks.

Comments 1

Social Isolation, Loneliness, and All-cause Mortality in Older men and Women – Journalist's Resource: Research for Reporting, from Harvard Shorenstein Center

March 28, 2013

[...] research: A 2008 study from Duke and Cornell, “The Ties that Bind are Fraying,” notes that Americans reported having one-third fewer confidants in 2004 than they did in the [...]

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The Ties that Bind are Fraying

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Social Isolation, Loneliness, and All-cause Mortality in Older men and Women – Journalist's Resource: Research for Reporting, from Harvard Shorenstein Center

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