Triad Census
The triad census counts how many of a directed network's three-actor subgroups fall into each of the 16 possible types of triad, providing a compact fingerprint of the network's local structure. Introduced by Paul Holland and Samuel Leinhardt in 1970, it is the standard way to test structural theories — balance, clustering, transitivity, ranked clusters — by comparing the observed distribution of triad types against what a random network would produce.
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Sources
- Holland, P. W., & Leinhardt, S. (1970). A method for detecting structure in sociometric data. American Journal of Sociology, 76(3), 492–513. DOI: 10.1086/224954 ↗
- Davis, J. A. (1967). Clustering and structural balance in graphs. Human Relations, 20(2), 181–187. DOI: 10.1177/001872676702000206 ↗
How to cite this page
ScholarGate. (2026, June 22). Triad Census of Directed Networks. ScholarGate. https://scholargate.app/en/sociology/triad-census
Which method?
Set this method beside its closest kin and read them side by side — the library lays the books on the table; the choice is yours.
- BlockmodelingSociology↔ compare
- Dyadic AnalysisSociology↔ compare
- Social Network AnalysisNetwork analysis↔ compare
- Structural Balance TheorySociology↔ compare