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Dunbar’s number

🧠 Psychology By CampusDown Wiki Editorial Team Last updated
Dunbar’s number is the estimate that people can maintain about 150 stable social relationships.
Contents
  1. 1. Dunbar’s number
  2. 2. Frequently asked questions
  3. 3. References

Dunbar’s number

In 1992 Robin Dunbar related primate neocortex size to group size and predicted that humans can maintain about 150 stable relationships (the social brain hypothesis). Relationships form layers of roughly 5, 15, 50 and 150. Online networks grow larger but close ties do not grow much. Lindenfors et al. (2021) showed confidence intervals are so wide that 150 cannot be pinned down, so treat it as a rough indicator of limited social time and cognition.

Frequently asked questions

Is it exactly 150?
No; it is a rough estimate with wide uncertainty.
Does social media change it?
Close ties appear largely unchanged.

References

  1. Dunbar, R. I. M. (1992). Neocortex size as a constraint on group size in primates. Journal of Human Evolution, 22(6), 469–493.
  2. Hill, R. A., & Dunbar, R. I. M. (2003). Social network size in humans. Human Nature, 14(1), 53–72.
  3. Lindenfors, P., Wartel, A., & Lind, J. (2021). ‘Dunbar’s number’ deconstructed. Biology Letters, 17(5), 20210158.

Reports and materials that use this theory (Korean)

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This article was last updated on October 24, 2026. It is based on widely recognized original works and textbooks; when citing it in a paper, please check the original sources listed in the references.