Triadic closure is a concept in social network theory, first suggested by German sociologist Georg Simmel in his 1908 book Soziologie [Sociology: Investigations on the Forms of Sociation]. Triadic closure is the property among three nodes A, B, and C, such that if a strong tie exists between A-B and A-C, there is only a strong tie between B-C. This property is too extreme to hold true across very large, complex networks, but it is a useful simplification of reality that can be used to understand and predict networks. | Triadic closure is a concept in social network theory, first suggested by German sociologist Georg Simmel in his 1908 book Soziologie [Sociology: Investigations on the Forms of Sociation]. Triadic closure is the property among three nodes A, B, and C, such that if a strong tie exists between A-B and A-C, there is only a strong tie between B-C. This property is too extreme to hold true across very large, complex networks, but it is a useful simplification of reality that can be used to understand and predict networks. |