Dunbar number
Under the Dunbar number ( English Dunbar's number ) is the theoretical " cognitive limit" the number of people with whom an individual social relationships can entertain. The concept was developed by the psychologist Robin Dunbar . The Dunbar number describes the number of people of whom someone can know the names and essential relationships with one another.
Dunbar sees the number as a property or function of the neocortex . In general, the Dunbar number is 150, with the number of friends individually varying between 100 and 250. Whether it also applies to so-called virtual social networks is the subject of scientific discussions. Initial studies confirm the validity for this area as well.
literature
- RIM Dunbar: Coevolution of neocortical size, group size and language in humans. In: Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 16, 1993, p. 681, doi : 10.1017 / S0140525X00032325 .
- J. Saramaki, EA Leicht, E. Lopez, SGB Roberts, F. Reed-Tsochas, RIM Dunbar: Persistence of social signatures in human communication. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 111, 2014, p. 942, doi : 10.1073 / pnas.1308540110 .
Web links
- Holger Dambeck: Social networks: New friends displace old friends. In: Spiegel Online . January 7, 2014, accessed June 10, 2015 .
- Aleks Krotoski : Robin Dunbar: We can only ever have 150 friends at most ... In: The Guardian . May 19, 2014, accessed June 10, 2015 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Holger Dambeck: Social networks: New friends oust old friends. In: Spiegel Online. January 7, 2014, accessed January 7, 2014 .
- ↑ Werner Stangl: Dunbar number. In: Online Lexicon for Psychology and Education. July 10, 2018, accessed July 10, 2018 .