DUNBAR’S NUMBER REPORT
A famous study related to friends
Integrated Science Club
20.10.2022
Website: https://sites.google.com/syss.edu.hk/integrated-science-club/home
Dunbar’s Number is a famous concept present in the world of psychology. Psychology is an important aspect in science, so we Integrated Science Club decided to do research on it and report the conclusion to students that are interested in this topic.
It was first proposed in the 1990s by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar. He observed that a human brain cannot handle that many relationships at the same time (or across a period of time). By the definition of relationships set by Dunbar, it was said informally “the number of people you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink if you happened to bump into them in a bar”. So it means that the group of people are basically friends.
It was estimated that it was around 150. The reason for this is due to the brain not handling too many relationships. There exists a part of the brain where it handles memory. The neocortex manages our semantic memory, and even plays a big role in our sleep and learning process. Processing limit of the neocortex is the reason why only around 150 relationships can be preserved at the same time.