Dunbar's number is a proposed cognitive limit on the number of people with whom one person can maintain stable social relationships, commonly cited as approximately 150. British anthropologist Robin Dunbar derived the figure in the 1990s from a correlation observed across primate species between neocortex size and typical social group size, then extrapolated the human neocortex's proportional size to predict a comparable ceiling for humans. Dunbar and others have pointed to historical and organizational groupings, such as hunter-gatherer bands and military companies, of roughly that size as supporting evidence, though the precise number and its universality remain debated.
Facts
First Described Year Everyday Context Replication Standing Classification
Type of PhenomenonSocial or Interpersonal Phenomenon 1 Connections
In Branch
Source Dunbar's Number (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Dunbar's Number (Wikipedia)
- Wikipedia Dunbar's Number lead paragraph (w-bbfill-psych-diag-0926, keyword classification against phenomenon-kind enum definitions, hand-checked)
Lead section
Dunbar's number is a suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships-relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person.
Research background
In 1992, Dunbar used the correlation observed for non-human primates to predict a social group size for humans.
View the Source2. FORRT: FORRT Replications and Reversals
FORRTEntry: DunbarQuote, Entry: Dunbar
Dunbar’s number. The number of neocortical neurons limits the organism’s information-processing capacity and this then limits the number of relationships that an individual can monitor simultaneously. Humans are cognitively or emotionally limited to 150 relationships with other people. Statistics Status: not replicated
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