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The famous 150 friends is a very shaky number.

Robin Dunbar extrapolated from brain size and group size across 38 primate genera to about 150 stable human relationships. In 2021 Lindenfors and colleagues redid the analysis with newer data and got 16 to 109 – with confidence intervals spanning 2 to 520.

Useful: When a round number comes from an extrapolation, ask for the confidence interval.

Source: en.wikipedia.org

MythosSozialpsychologie

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Question on this card

How did Dunbar arrive at the number 150?

  1. By counting contacts in villages
  2. By extrapolating from primate brain and group sizes
  3. By analysing phone books
  4. By surveying students
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Correct: By extrapolating from primate brain and group sizes

It is a regression from primate data, not a value measured directly in humans.

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