A new study conducted by the British researchers has attempted to ascertain the relation between the brain size of the primates and their social circle. The revered expert of anthropology, Robin Dunbar was also included in the research panel.
The findings of the survey are rather interesting and fascinating. The study concluded that humans can form significant relations with only up to 150 people. Of these 150, only five can be regarded as the BFFs!
The next layer of close friends comprises of 10 individuals, 35 are fitted into the third layer while the remaining 100 make up the outermost circle of acquaintances. The anthropologist has also described that these “Dunbar Layers” exhibit subtle differences in the number of people and relations for both the extroverts as well as the introverts.
The study was conducted by analysing the data comprising of an enormous 6 billion calls made by 35 million individuals. The relationships were accordingly classified on the basis of the frequency of calls. It is noteworthy to mention here that the scientists chose the Phone calls data to conduct this research because the study was initiated in 2007 before Facebook took the world by storm or iPhone hit the retail shops.
On average, the number of closest friends in the first layer was 4 and in the second layer was 11; 30 in the third layer and 129 in the final and the outermost layer. The findings are in accordance with the Dunbar predictions.