Gaining Social Influence Is About More Than Amassing Friends, It’s About Knowing Who Is Friends With Whom

Popularity may open doors, but a new study suggests that true social influence depends less on how many people you know — and more on how well you understand how theyre connected to each other, a process called social mapping.

Researchers at Brown Universitys Carney Institute for Brain Science have found that individuals who accurately perceive the structure of their social networks are more likely to rise to positions of influence. The study, published in Science Advances and funded by the National Science Foundation, tracked nearly 200 first-year students at Brown as they built and navigated a brand-new social network.

“People vary considerably in how accurately they understand the structure of their communities,” said study author Oriel FeldmanHall, an associate professor of cognitive and psychological sciences affiliated with the Brown’s Carney Institute for Brain Science. “Our research establishes for the first time that people who excel at mapping out their social network — determining who belongs to which communities and cliques — are the ones who will go on to become the most influential in the social network.”

The study began with a blank social slate among 200 students across three first-year dorms. When students first arrived on campus, few if any friendships existed. By winter break, a complex web of relationships had emerged. Over six survey rounds throughout the academic year, participants were asked to name their friends within the study group.

The researchers then constructed evolving graphs of the social network, revealing who was centrally connected — and how that changed over time. Those with the most connections to other well-connected people appeared at the center of the graph, while those with fewer, less connected friends appeared at the margins.

“What matters are your connections to other well-connected peers,” said study author Isabella Aslarus, who conducted the research as a manager in FeldmanHalls lab and is now a Ph.D. student in psychology at Stanford University. “These more powerful social ties give you a number of benefits that together add up to what we call influence. Influential individuals hold sway over others actions and are better at spreading information through their networks — a power thats been harnessed by interventions to reduce bullying and promote public health.”

By the end of the year, the students occupying the influential center had changed. It turned out that social mobility — moving into those central, influential positions — was less about sheer popularity and more about insight. Students had also completed a “network knowledge task” in which they guessed whether random pairs of their peers were friends. Some were remarkably accurate, even when evaluating people they didnt know well.

The ability to map these social connections — rather than merely amassing friends — predicted who would become most influential by years end. Those who were at the center by the end of the year demonstrated a greater understanding relationships among people who were farther removed from their inner circles, and a bird’s-eye view of cliques and communities.

“Participants often told us that it felt like they were just guessing who is friends with whom,” Aslarus said. “But in reality, some individuals are remarkably perceptive of the structure of their social world, and over time, this knowledge enables them to end up at its center.”

The studys findings suggest that social intelligence — specifically, the capacity to grasp unseen relationships between others — may be a foundational skill in navigating complex human networks. And in a world where influence increasingly shapes outcomes, it may be just as important as charisma or communication.

As FeldmanHall put it, its a kind of “social superpower.”