paradox · traps · social
Friendship paradox
Your friends have more friends than you do.
On average, your friends have more friends than you do. This is true for most people in most networks.
Count your friends, then count how many friends those friends have.
People with many friends appear in more people's friend lists.
When you average over your friends, those well-connected people are counted more often.
Most individuals therefore see a higher number among their friends than they themselves have.
The paradox comes from averaging over a sample that is tilted toward well-connected people.