British anthropologist Robin Dunbar postulated in the 1990s that, given our brain size, human beings can only maintain 150 stable relationships.
A new study has taken a look at modern and traditional societies, and has concluded that the number is actually 132. But there is another limitation, and that is the small number of close links an individual can maintain. This account states that the maximum number of close links we can maintain is on average about five. Continue reading Dunbar’s number revisited→
Tonight (Thursday) on Catalyst Dr Jonica Newberry is going to show a segment entitled Falling in Friendship (cf falling in love), which will look at Dunbar’s number, the number of friends we can maintain in an enduring relationship. The Wikipedia spiel is as follows:
Dunbar’s number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person. Continue reading Dunbar’s number→
Climate change, sustainability, plus sundry other stuff
