The technical term is “directed onion decomposition.”
It describes how centrally embedded an individual is in a network of others. The deeper in this “onion” they are, the more connections they have. The network being studied: NHL Hockey fights.
Researchers at the University of Vermont, the University of Colorado Boulder, and Dartmouth College analyzed 10 years of hockey fight data and reconstructed these brawls into a network where lines were drawn between participants. They found that hockey enforcers who were more centrally connected to others through combat tended to be stronger fighters. Because “enforcers”—whose primary role is to protect their teammates, intimidate opponents, and fight—are a small proportion of hockey players, they provide a model for how network structure can reveal features of how people who participate in non-normative behaviors function in a “society.”
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