10 Nov How many friends fit in your head?

How many social media connections do you have? 

On LinkedIn? Facebook? Xing? Google+? 

And how about your connections in real life?

The British anthropologist dr. Robin Dunbar calculates the average social group size, based on the size of the neocortex (a part of your brain ;)). Dunbar used the correlation observed for non-human primates to predict a social group size for humans. As a result of his study, Dunbar predicted a human “mean group size” of 148 (casually rounded to 150).

The implications are immense, both in our work as private lives. Staying connected with all of these 150 people will take (according to Dunbar) 42% of your time for social grooming.

So, think again about how many relevant social connections you really have? The rest are just bystanders watching part of your life or work.

If you want to know how many work friends fit in your employees´ heads, get in touch so we can create a simple knowledge network of your organisation!