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Dunbar's number

(also Dunbar number)
Definition of Dunbar's number

noun

  • a theoretical limit to the number of people with whom any individual is able to sustain a stable or meaningful social relationship (usually considered to be roughly 150):even in the age of Facebook, the number of friends with whom you keep in touch is likely to be less than Dunbar’s number

Origin:

early 21st century: named after Robin Dunbar (b. 1947), the British anthropologist and psychologist who proposed the theory in the 1990s

Dunbar's number in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of Dunbar's number in the US English dictionary
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