Some Problems of Inference from Chain Data

Researchers studying rumor transmission are often interested in tracing the rumor to its source by asking each person who first told him. The end product of such a tracing may be a chain of acquaintances. In another kind of chain method, the researcher could ask a respondent to name the person with most influence on him; then, in turn, ask this reported influencer to name the person with most influence on him; and so on. Whatever the details of procedure, all the methods of obtaining chain data trace paths from one person to another on the basis of the relationships between them. Naturally occurring chains, like