The Friendship Architecture · Many connections · low depth

The Wide-and-Shallow

A wide social network of friendly acquaintances. Many people would describe you as a friend; very few are. Easy to make, hard to deepen.

Roughly 22% of people land here.

The dimensional signature

Ease 80

Depth 30

Retention 45

Conflict capacity 35

Breadth 92

What this type means

The Wide-and-Shallow pattern produces lots of warm, low-friction connections but very few that go deep. Often present in highly-Extraverted people in social-bandwidth-rich environments (cities, certain industries, university). The cost is paid in moments of crisis — there are many people to invite to a party, fewer to call at 2am. Distinct from Peacekeeper because the surface-level pattern isn't conflict-driven; it's just that depth requires sustained time-investment the Wide-and-Shallow person doesn't prioritize.

You might recognize

The Wide-and-Shallow person has many "friends" in the colloquial sense — coffee, drinks, dinner-party rotations. Few hold real interior life. New friendships start easily; old ones don't carry the weight you might expect after years. Often gets lonely in crisis despite having lots of "friends."

The growth edge

Pick 2-3 of your wider circle and deliberately invest in deepening them. Share something you wouldn't normally share. Ask the question you wouldn't normally ask. Depth requires a bid; wide-and-shallow people rarely make the bid.

Are you The Wide-and-Shallow?

~5 min · 20 questions · free, no signup, and the result feeds your cross-test Portrait.

Take The Friendship Architecture →

The other types in The Friendship Architecture

The Naturally Easy The Devoted Peacekeeper The Selective Anchor The Repair-Capable