MIT Research Shows Most Don't Leverage Professional Networks Appropriately - Page 2
In the second and third experiments, Reagans and his team tested subjects’ tendency to assume that people of the same race are connected. Subjects were first given photographs of 16 students of different races and asked to draw a diagram of where they thought relationships existed. I
n the final experiment, subjects were shown a photograph of 36 employees of varying races seated at a lunch table for 30 seconds, told to memorize it, and then reproduce it 10 minutes later. The results of both experiments showed that people with a high NFC tended to perceive relationships between people of the same race.
Most of us have a baseline tendency to believe that individuals of the same race, age, and gender are connected, a presumption known as the “social similarity principle.” Our intuition is correct: relationships do cluster that way, but there is significant variation. “People with a high NFC overuse the principle,” says Reagans. “They tend to believe that African Americans are mostly friends with other African Americans, and Asians are mostly friends with other Asians.”
Reagans says that people with high NFC need to learn how to see their networks more accurately, and that employers and business schools ought to help them. “A lot of companies and MBA programs provide networking opportunities, but for people with a high NFC those opportunities are not productive.
“There needs to be two interventions. First, educate workers and students on what kinds of relationships are more valuable. And second, educate them on how their biases and preconceived notions can limit their ability to realize the benefits having the right connections can create,” he says.
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