Do You Need 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. Skillshare: http://skl.sh/vsauce2 ** LINKS ** Written, Produced, Edited and Hosted by Kevin Lieber Instagram:   / kevlieber   Twitter:   / kevinlieber   Website: http://kevinlieber.com VFX by Eric Langlay    / 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    / jakechudnow   Special Thanks Paula Lieber   / pixichuu   Vsauce2 Links Twitter:   / vsaucetwo   Facebook:   / vsaucetwo   Website: http://www.Vsauce.com 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... Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage by Stephanie Coontz https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/014... 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/sharin... http://journals.plos.org/plosone/arti... 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-d... Dr. Steve Stewart-Williams http://www.stevestewartwilliams.com/   / stevestuwill   Cameron Marlow http://cameronmarlow.com/ Phil DeFranco    / sxephil