arXiv:cond-mat/0106507cond-mat.stat-mech
The Web of Human Sexual Contacts
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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 $α\approx 2.4$ 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.
The actual article mentioned in the link: http://www.soc.washington.edu/users/stovel/Chains.pdf See also: "The web of human sexual contacts" http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v411/n6840/full/411907a... (Non pay-wall version: http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0106507 )
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