Help for Step 7 - Who met who?

We appreciate that this is probably the hardest part of the questionnaire. Here we want to know how many of your contacts you believe met each other (either on the day of the questionnaire or in the proceeding week). Please use your common sense with this question, and only cross the boxes where you believe it is likely that two people met each other.

Some situations are very clear. If you met Fred and Joe at the same time and you all spoke to each other then obviously Fred and Joe have met and you would put a cross in the appropriate boxes (Fred met Joe and Joe met Fred).

If you have met two people in very different situations, say one at work and one socialising or at home, then there is very little chance that they will have met in the past week, so leave the boxes blank.

However some situations are far more difficult to decide, and this is where we ask you to use your judgement.

Example
You and Joe work together and talk on your questionnaire day, you also talk to your manager Phil – if Phil is also Joe’s manager then it is very likely that Phil and Joe met during the past week (even if you never actually saw them meet) so you would put a cross in the appropriate boxes.

Example
You and Sue meet and chat in the supermarket and you then talk to the person on the checkout till; there is a chance that Sue will be served by the same checkout person but given the total number of tills this is unlikely therefore you leave the boxes blank.

Scientifically this information is important to us as it tells us about ‘clustering’ in the social network. Mathematical models have shown that clustering is very important in modifying the spread of infectious diseases, and yet the amount of clustering in social networks is poorly understood. Therefore although this is the most difficult part of the questionnaire to complete it is also one of the most scientifically important sections.