How many friends do you have?

50?

100?

Now how about close friends?

If you’ll recall back in the early days of Facebook, everyone was busy adding every single friend, casual acquaintance and stranger that they came across as a “friend” until it became too much and a “purge” took place. A purging that was partly influenced by a burger chain and this thing called Dunbar’s number: which concerns the maximum number of friends that one person can have at any one time. 

The person who formulated it?

Professor Robin Dunbar: Emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford, who was awarded the Huxley Memorial Medal for services to anthropology by the Council of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, the highest honour at the disposal of the RAI.

Fun fact: Robin was a featured character in the adaptation of Yuval Noah Harari’s book, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind into a graphic novel in 2020!

In this episode you’ll learn about who Robin is, how he went from philosophy to tracking primates in Africa to formulating Dunbar’s Number, why we can only have 150 friends, the psychology behind romantic scams and what he thinks of the Web 3.0 space.

Do you agree that one person can only have 150 friends?

Highlights:

• 2:56 How Robin got hooked onto human evolution
• 7:18 Why Robin wanted to do philosophy
• 8:50 Tracking monkeys & antelopes in Africa in the early 1970s
• 24:50 The 7 pillars of friendship
• 30:35 Do opposites attract?
• 35:47 Where Dunbar’s Number came from
• 40:11 Why 150?
• 45:06 Even dogs can be part of your 150
• 51:54 Can you guard yourself against romantic scammers?
• 55:05 The problem with Web 3.0
• 1:02:21 How do you build a strong virtual community?
• 1:10:58 Common misconception with Dunbar’s Number
• 1:13:18 Challenging 150
• 1:16:34 How listeners can help Robin

📍Show notes: www.sothisismywhy.com/85

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