Oriel FeldmanHall: Social networks, but in real life

In September, Love Letters joined a Boston-area indie movie theater – the Coolidge Corner Theatre – for a special “Science on Screen” presentation of the comedy “Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion.”Meredith introduced the movie with Brown University’s Oriel FeldmanHall, whose lab studies real-life social networks, and how we make maps of our communities without even knowing it. They talked about the 1997 film, and then everybody watched together, with science in mind.Before the screening, Meredith and Oriel met for an interview in an upstairs room at the theater. They talked about making friends, first impressions, who gets to be the center of social circles, and what it means to gossip.Enjoy this conversation – and then watch “Romy and Michele” if you feel like it.Oriel FeldmanHall’s research can be found at www.feldmanhalllab.com.Remember, Love Letters has a Friends With Benefits Club with a free extra episodes, an ad-free experience, and swag. Sign up at Globe.com/loveletters/friendswithbenefits. We are grateful for support. If you sign up, you'll be able to hear a new episode about recent letters to the advice column.Also, you can write in to the Love Letters advice column about what’s happening in your relationship life. Submit anonymous questions to https://www.boston.com/question-for-meredith.

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