Dunbar's number

addendumb commented on the word Dunbar's number

Dunbar's number is suggested to be a theoretical 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.1 Proponents assert that numbers larger than this generally require more restrictive rules, laws, and enforced norms to maintain a stable, cohesive group. No precise value has been proposed for Dunbar's number. It has been proposed to lie between 100 and 230, with a commonly used value of 150.2 Dunbar's number states the number of people one knows and keeps social contact with, and it does not include the number of people known personally with a ceased social relationship, nor people just generally known with a lack of persistent social relationship, a number which might be much higher and likely depends on long-term memory size.

August 15, 2011

ruzuzu commented on the word Dunbar's number

Thanks--I'd forgotten what that was called.

August 15, 2011

sionnach commented on the word Dunbar's number

So if you have more than 150 FB friends, you are deluding yourself. They don't all wish you well.

October 22, 2011