The web of human sexual contacts
Files
First author draft
Date
2001-06-21
DOI
Authors
Liljeros, F.
Edling, C. R.
Amaral, Luis A. Nunes
Stanley, H. Eugene
Aberg, Y.
Version
First author draft
OA Version
Citation
F. Liljeros, C.R. Edling, L.A.N. Amaral, H.E. Stanley, Y. Aberg. 2001. "The web of human sexual contacts." NATURE, Volume 411, Issue 6840, pp. 907 - 908 (2). https://doi.org/10.1038/35082140
Abstract
Many "real-world" networks are clearly defined while most "social" networks are to some extent subjective. Indeed, the accuracy of empirically-determined social networks is a question of some concern because individuals may have distinct perceptions of what constitutes a social link. One unambiguous type of connection is sexual contact. Here we analyze data on the sexual behavior of a random sample of individuals, and find that the cumulative distributions of the number of sexual partners during the twelve months prior to the survey decays as a power law with similar exponents α≈2.4 for females and males. The scale-free nature of the web of human sexual contacts suggests that strategic interventions aimed at preventing the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases may be the most efficient approach.