Fig. 6

Comparison between self-distances \(d_{self}\) and reference distances \(d_{ref}\) for ego networks of all datasets. The average self distances are smaller than average reference distances for all parameter combinations, implying that social signatures tend to be more similar for the same person during different times, than to other people’s signatures. We performed a two-sided T-test for difference in means, finding that for all datasets the mean \(d_{self}\) differed from \(d_{ref}\) with all estimated p values \(<10^{-13}\). The estimated means for all datasets are: Letters \({\hat{d}}_{self}=0.218 \pm 0.048\) and \({\hat{d}}_{ref}=0.302 \pm 0.008\); Platform \({\hat{d}}_{self}=0.241 \pm 0.025\) and \({\hat{d}}_{ref}=0.292 \pm 0.002\); Email \({\hat{d}}_{self}=0.191 \pm 0.019\) and \({\hat{d}}_{ref}=0.317 \pm 0.0001\); Forum \({\hat{d}}_{self}=0.189 \pm 0.019\) and \({\hat{d}}_{ref}=0.235 \pm 0.001\); Mobile \({\hat{d}}_{self}=0.162 \pm 0.014\) and \({\hat{d}}_{ref}=0.227 \pm 0.002\). Confidence intervals for the mean reported at 95%