Whether close or far: Social distance effects on perceived balance in friendship networks

Under what circumstances are individuals' perceptions of friendship relatio ns shaped by the balance schema? Using data from 4 organizations varying in size from 21 to 33 members, the authors investigated how ego's perception of the social distance from ego to alter affected the proportion of alter's friendships perceived by ego as balanced. Balance involves both (a) recipr ocated friendships between 2 people, and (b) transitive triplets, in which 2 friends of a person are themselves friends. Graphical and regression anal yses supported a composite curvilinear model that combined the predictions of emotional tension and cognitive miser perspectives: People tended to per ceive relations close to and distant from themselves as more balanced than relations of intermediate distance.