The Invention of Friends (Dunbar's Number)

How many friends can you actually have? No, really... how many friends can your brain handle?

Kevin details the work of anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who suggests that human beings are cognitively-equipped to handle around 150 friendships. While studying primates, Dunbar found a correlation between the size of the neocortex and the size of the average social group and applied that to humans… but why 150?

The Social Intelligence Hypothesis suggests that we evolved to understand and manage relationships, and it turns out that sharing is a concept few animals seem to possess. Developing and maintaining real, meaningful friendships may be a lot harder than we realize.

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*** LINKS ***

Written, Produced, Edited and Hosted by Kevin Lieber
Instagram: http://instagram.com/kevlieber
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kevinlieber
Website: http://kevinlieber.com

VFX by Eric Langlay
https://www.youtube.com/c/ericlanglay

Contributing Researcher & Editor Matthew Tabor, Koala Fight Media
http://koala.fm/

Sound Design by Jay Pellizzi
http://jaypellizzi.com/

Select Music by Jake Chudnow
https://www.youtube.com/user/jakechudnow

Special Thanks Paula Lieber
https://twitter.com/pixichuu

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Curiosity Box: https://www.curiositybox.com/

**** SOURCES ****

BOOKS

How Many Friends Does One Person Need? Dunbar’s Number And Other Evolutionary Quirks by Robin Dunbar
https://www.amazon.com/Friends-Person-Dunbars-Number-Evolutionary/dp/0571253431/

Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage by Stephanie Coontz
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014303667X/

ASSETS

Robin Dunbar, Networks In A Virtual World - Aalto SCI
https://goo.gl/FqB8Rv

Riken Brain Science Institute
https://goo.gl/enRRvg

RESEARCH PAPERS

Do Online Social Media Cut Through The Constraints That Limit The Size Of Offline Social Networks?
https://goo.gl/ZgHhBL

Lethal Intergroup Aggression Leads To Territorial Expansion In Wild Chimpanzees
https://goo.gl/49cqPY

Marital Satisfaction And Break-Ups Differ Across Online And Offline Meeting Venues
https://goo.gl/sUjM6Q

Bonobos Share With Strangers Before Acquaintances
https://today.duke.edu/2013/01/sharinghare
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0051922

Neocortex Size, Group Size, and the Evolution of Language
https://goo.gl/jhH9C9

Social Network Size In Humans by Hill and Dunbar
https://goo.gl/oEYZ5X

The Social Brain Hypothesis
https://goo.gl/h4eMft

New And Revised Data On Volume Of Brain Structures In Insectivores And Primates
https://goo.gl/ExsoGc

Primate Social Systems by Robin Dunbar
https://goo.gl/RyRrLN

Coevolution Of Neocortical Size, Group Size And Language In Humans by Robin Dunbar
https://goo.gl/ERJcFM

Cultural Intelligence Hypothesis
https://goo.gl/GUKE6v

Modeling Users’ Activity On Twitter Networks
https://goo.gl/Tudb1K

ARTICLES

How Many People Can You Remember
https://goo.gl/2skZ8z

How Many Friends Can You Really Have
https://goo.gl/P9QfYS

The Average American Knows How Many People?
https://goo.gl/b5ajfG

The Limits Of Friendship
https://goo.gl/Fpue3v

How Many People Do You Trust?
https://goo.gl/Djy1hM

Robin Dunbar TEDx - Can The Internet Buy You More Friends?
https://goo.gl/fD7H4o

Your Brain Limits You To Just Five BFFs
https://goo.gl/H69BAA

The Dunbar Number As A Limit To Group Sizes
https://goo.gl/7jENeg

What’s Your Dunbar Number?
https://goo.gl/3gVUqJ

Do You Have Too Many Facebook Friends?
https://goo.gl/qpnUhz

Are Humans Hard Wired For A Limited Social Circle?
https://goo.gl/GzGPZ8

Twitter And The Dunbar Number
https://goo.gl/m7YVkB

Is Friendship Limited? An Inquiry into Dunbar’s Number by Larry Dossey, M.D.
https://goo.gl/QgC1b4

Number Of Wedding Attendees
https://goo.gl/tY9Vne
https://goo.gl/hWq4Q1

The Social Brain Hypothesis
https://goo.gl/aeMfAa

Stephanie Coontz: On Marriage
https://goo.gl/LSS2Pf
https://goo.gl/b3FgM9

First Evidence That Online Dating Is Changing The Nature Of Society
https://goo.gl/MUAr4F

SPECIAL THANKS

Robin Dunbar
https://www.psy.ox.ac.uk/team/robin-dunbar

Dr. Steve Stewart-Williams
http://www.stevestewartwilliams.com/
https://twitter.com/SteveStuWill

Cameron Marlow
http://cameronmarlow.com/

Phil DeFranco
https://www.youtube.com/user/sxephil

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