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# The Strength of Weak Ties

## Details

**Authors** Granovetter, Mark S.

**Year** 1973

**Publisher** American Journal of Sociology

**Kind of work** article

**Discipline** Sociology

**Secondary disciplines** Network Science

**Applied** false

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1086/225469) 
10.1086/225469

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

To use analysis of social networks to link micro-level interaction with macro-level sociological theory.

### What they found (results)

The overlap between two people's friendship networks increases with the strength of the tie between them. Weak ties can bridge separate groups, so they matter for the diffusion of information, for mobility opportunities and for community organization, whereas models emphasizing strong ties are limited to small, well-defined groups.

## Commentary

### In short

The paper argues that casual acquaintances, more than close friends, connect separate social circles, and that this link between small-scale ties and large-scale social patterns explains how information and opportunity spread.

### Response

Tie strength is a contrast between strong and weak (distinction) whose consequences run through connections between individuals and groups (relationship), linking person-level interaction to community-level structure (system). Caveats: only the abstract and publisher record were read; sample and design were not extracted; the fit is argued at the level of the abstract.

**Patterns it shows** S, R

Shows the structure is there

**Added** 2026-10-26

**How to cite this** Granovetter, Mark S. (1973). The Strength of Weak Ties. American Journal of Sociology.