Saved by Ian Vanagas and
The Dunbar Number as a Limit to Group Sizes
It turned out that if they were talking about the mindstate of someone not present, there were never more than three people involved in the conversation; if they were talking about the mindstate of a member of the conversation group, or some factual issue like where to go for lunch or the lecture they had just been to, then four was the limit.
Robin Dunbar • Friends: Understanding the Power of our Most Important Relationships
Dunbar actually doesn’t say that we devote “grooming time” to the whole social group of 150. Rather he says that the 150 is made up from welding together much smaller “primary networks”: coalitions, friendship groups. Intensive grooming (language, for humans) is reserved for close friends. Our intimate group is very small, averaging just five.
Matt Webb • Dunbar’s number and how speaking is 2.8x better than picking fleas
