Do You Need Friends? (Dunbar's Number)
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 9 พ.ย. 2017
- How many friends can you actually have? No, really... how many friends can your brain handle?
Kevin details the work of anthropologist Robin Dunbar, who suggests that human beings are cognitively-equipped to handle around 150 friendships. While studying primates, Dunbar found a correlation between the size of the neocortex and the size of the average social group and applied that to humans… but why 150?
The Social Intelligence Hypothesis suggests that we evolved to understand and manage relationships, and it turns out that sharing is a concept few animals seem to possess. Developing and maintaining real, meaningful friendships may be a lot harder than we realize.
Skillshare: skl.sh/vsauce2
** LINKS **
Written, Produced, Edited and Hosted by Kevin Lieber
Instagram: / kevlieber
Twitter: / kevinlieber
Website: kevinlieber.com
VFX by Eric Langlay
/ ericlanglay
Contributing Researcher & Editor Matthew Tabor, Koala Fight Media
koala.fm/
Sound Design by Jay Pellizzi
jaypellizzi.com/
Select Music by Jake Chudnow
/ jakechudnow
Special Thanks Paula Lieber
/ pixichuu
Vsauce2 Links
Twitter: / vsaucetwo
Facebook: / vsaucetwo
Website: www.Vsauce.com
Curiosity Box: www.curiositybox.com/
*** SOURCES ***
BOOKS
How Many Friends Does One Person Need? Dunbar’s Number And Other Evolutionary Quirks by Robin Dunbar
www.amazon.com/Friends-Person...
Marriage, a History: How Love Conquered Marriage by Stephanie Coontz
www.amazon.com/gp/product/014...
ASSETS
Robin Dunbar, Networks In A Virtual World - Aalto SCI
goo.gl/FqB8Rv
Riken Brain Science Institute
goo.gl/enRRvg
RESEARCH PAPERS
Do Online Social Media Cut Through The Constraints That Limit The Size Of Offline Social Networks?
goo.gl/ZgHhBL
Lethal Intergroup Aggression Leads To Territorial Expansion In Wild Chimpanzees
goo.gl/49cqPY
Marital Satisfaction And Break-Ups Differ Across Online And Offline Meeting Venues
goo.gl/sUjM6Q
Bonobos Share With Strangers Before Acquaintances
today.duke.edu/2013/01/sharin...
journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...
Neocortex Size, Group Size, and the Evolution of Language
goo.gl/jhH9C9
Social Network Size In Humans by Hill and Dunbar
goo.gl/oEYZ5X
The Social Brain Hypothesis
goo.gl/h4eMft
New And Revised Data On Volume Of Brain Structures In Insectivores And Primates
goo.gl/ExsoGc
Primate Social Systems by Robin Dunbar
goo.gl/RyRrLN
Coevolution Of Neocortical Size, Group Size And Language In Humans by Robin Dunbar
goo.gl/ERJcFM
Cultural Intelligence Hypothesis
goo.gl/GUKE6v
Modeling Users’ Activity On Twitter Networks
goo.gl/Tudb1K
ARTICLES
How Many People Can You Remember
goo.gl/2skZ8z
How Many Friends Can You Really Have
goo.gl/P9QfYS
The Average American Knows How Many People?
goo.gl/b5ajfG
The Limits Of Friendship
goo.gl/Fpue3v
How Many People Do You Trust?
goo.gl/Djy1hM
Robin Dunbar TEDx - Can The Internet Buy You More Friends?
goo.gl/fD7H4o
Your Brain Limits You To Just Five BFFs
goo.gl/H69BAA
The Dunbar Number As A Limit To Group Sizes
goo.gl/7jENeg
What’s Your Dunbar Number?
goo.gl/3gVUqJ
Do You Have Too Many Facebook Friends?
goo.gl/qpnUhz
Are Humans Hard Wired For A Limited Social Circle?
goo.gl/GzGPZ8
Twitter And The Dunbar Number
goo.gl/m7YVkB
Is Friendship Limited? An Inquiry into Dunbar’s Number by Larry Dossey, M.D.
goo.gl/QgC1b4
Number Of Wedding Attendees
goo.gl/tY9Vne
goo.gl/hWq4Q1
The Social Brain Hypothesis
goo.gl/aeMfAa
Stephanie Coontz: On Marriage
goo.gl/LSS2Pf
goo.gl/b3FgM9
First Evidence That Online Dating Is Changing The Nature Of Society
goo.gl/MUAr4F
SPECIAL THANKS
Robin Dunbar
www.psy.ox.ac.uk/team/robin-d...
Dr. Steve Stewart-Williams
www.stevestewartwilliams.com/
/ stevestuwill
Cameron Marlow
cameronmarlow.com/
Phil DeFranco
/ sxephil - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
The only man in the world who can be taken seriously sitting in a ball pit.
Steelhunter777 lmfao
I'm pretty sure you wouldn't just stop listening to someone like Elon Musk if he sat in a ball pit.
Broken Beakers i’d laugh, hard.
i’ll pass out
What about Chuck Norris
what about zucc
Those four people must be really tired of receiving 80 % of all phone calls...
By logic, those 4 people make up 20% of ones friend
yes except the people calling them are likely in THEIR own main 4 people as well so it mostly works out
@@SirKaji then it fulfills the 80/20 rule or whatever, cool
Ashton Minden you mean zipf's law?
Hey, look how many likes.
My grandma and college friends have a lot in common, they all rely heavily on drugs.
MrBusrunner that's one thing
Different kinds but potato potato
@@bradhuff5131 potato potato
Tmi
I did not click this video to listen to YOU. i clicked it to learn about dunbars number. Although i do enjoy vsauce i wasnt aware this video was vsauce till you said vsauce.
Weirdly enough, about 2 years ago after a short defriend spree on FB, i managed to end up with 152 friends in total out of the 600+ i once had lol
*imagines having 150 friends*
too... much..... social........ interaction...........
I don't think they mean friend in the same way most of us think of as friends. They say '50 meaningful relationships' which would be my estimation of a real friend. And, to me, that seams reasonable; 10-15 family (maybe a lot more), 10 coworkers you actually know, 10 people that are into the same hobbies as you, that's already 30+.
The other 100 people are more like the other coworkers you know see in their cubicle each day, or that uncle that never comes to thanksgiving. Your old friends from high school or your last job. And then you have all of their extended families, some of which you may know better than others.
kindlin still too much
still too, tooooo *much*
ikr
can't even image having one...
So... Do you want to expand your social interaction? Hahahaha
151 original Pokémon , just saying
152 Missingno #foreveralone
Maxim Kruglov but thats not an official pokemon
Nerdy Gamer it exists as a Pokemon in official games, therefore it is an official pokemon
There are myriads of glitch Pokemon. You can't count all of them as actual Pokemon.
Project Legend is it in the pokedex? no? then its not official, its just a glitch
How many Pokemon in Red and Blue? 150 baaammmm ibf4mew
BruceWillakers wtf
There are 151 Pokemon in Red/Blue/Yellow, but you can't hold that many in the PC. It is the amount you can hold in the PC that would be Red/Blue/Ash/Gary's personal Dunbar number.
SmashyPlays b-but it's 151
actually, you can have 20x12+6=246 Pokémons with you. Try getting them all to level 100.
Ym 151
ahahahahah 150
lol I have like 2 on a good day
Incendere Nope, 150 people also includes your Parents, immediate family members like siblings,extended relatives such as your cousins, acquintances, classmates as well as acquintances you have not seen in a long time.
It doesn't have to though. Personally I don't include extended family and acquaintances as friends because I have no real interest in most of them.
Penguin 101 Wrong, do you hangout with more than 1000 people annually. Stop lying, humans are only able to expreince relationship with 150-250 people. Good luck with your lies
2 ? teach me senpai!!!!!
Its the max not the min. :D
New excuse to get rid of bad friends in my life: "sorry I reached my 150 friend limit, we can never talk again"
Tyler Dain i
now get rid of those 30 likes
Did you just toss a banana at my face? Rude...
Dj Slimdick Hey Kevin, you wont be hitting your 150 if you behave like that. >:(
Shade X yeah! Please be nice to everyone
Bananas are radioactive. U trying to give me cancer?
Dj Slimdick lol, I expect you prefer slimmer banana
Rude! This is a nice comment section.
150 friends? That's 150 too many.
Im fine then because i have 0 :(
Recently, Vsauce2 has been the best VSauce.
Yush
chrisrus1965 that’s only because he’s actually making content
@@somerandomguy___ Yeah but now it's just board game stuff :( production value has declined
Vsauce 2: 3:08
Do people really maintain friendships with three digit numbers of people? I hardly manage to routinely care about 6 family members and 4 or 5 friends
Edit: eyyyyy I graduated highschool and went down to 3 friends
No, he was just saying that Dunbar's number is the maximum. It would be difficult to maintain any more than 150 meaningful relationships.
ujowcooq o OE plqjclxjbd
The Doctor. simply The Doctor.
I thought about all the people I talk to at least once a week outside of work and school and it's only 2 people. : (
God Bear I think I'm south of 10 if you DO count school :/
Meaningful relationships, with meaningful purpose, not just people you hangout with for fun. Think - all your relatives and classmates and club members and coworkers and church members and teammates and neighbors…
Buckets? You mean circles? Google Plus was correct?
Rhett Having a Vietnam Flashback illumination comforting
G+ wasn't very good, but I liked that feature.
similar to g+, facebook also has a feature to create friend lists. But facebook does not show that option as prominently as g+ which is sad.
yeah, google is more forward thinking and realistic in terms of social interaction.. too bad it didn''t succeed as they hoped it to be
Guys, you're still using G+ when commenting over here.
3:00 A Leaf just committed suicide behind you :(
RIP, I didnt want him to *leaf* us
Too soon?
o
F
lea *F*
Tygr Asijsky ha
This is wild. The biggest realization I had about social media's effect on social circles this wasn't just about making friends, but ending friendships, or being unable to.
When I was in high school, I was in a group of friends who had a huge hangout session every week. It was basically a given. Toward the end of high school, some of us, including me, just started opting out. And then eventually, I stopped seeing them altogether. There we no hard feelings about it - we were the right friends at the right time, then our needs changed. We stopped seeing each other, we stopped thinking about each other.
Facebook has made that gradual fadeout basically impossible. People who I don't really need to be friends with anymore, people who keep me stuck on an old phase of my life, emotionally, are still present. We keep feigning interest in each other's activities, we keep saying "we should hang out", and it never happens, but since now we can stay in touch potentially forever, the expectation is always there. An endless drain with no gain on either side.
Touché or that might be the wrong word but it’s still better left to be understood.
So we are just gonna ignore the fact he recorded the whole video in a Kids Ball Pit in his backyard?
Yes, I'm sure you're the only one who noticed such an odd place to do a video. You must be a detective.
Yes, but did you ignore him while he was in your backyard?
I've been seeing you a lot everywhere
we ignored your username
What does it matter
8:13 "You can have 2 and that's totally fine", well that calmed me
Edit: Don't watch my latest video please
Yup you've just got 2 more to go. Shouldn't be too hard, right?
Peter, was that necessary?
ditto
Lol, Peter's comment is so relatable
mee too thanks
The most fascinating consequence to me is what happens when a company grows beyond 150. Until that point everyone really can know everyone else. After that point they simply can not. A lot of subtle things change at that point and it's always difficult. Many or even most companies do not survive it.
Can I get girls if I routinely groom them for ticks?
No, I tried it already...
Worked for me
No, but if they let you groom them for ticks you can probably get with them.
yes
Rodrigo Teresa may not be the kind of girl you would want to spend time with
What's up?
...
What is "up?"
Gash darnit, Vsauce!
*que Vsauce music*
Grammatically, "up" is a preposition
marinlini queue*
Ah... dammit! I always mess it up!
Hahaha So true.
2 is the minimum? damn
K J Aravind I'm here for you buddy
Yea me too (:
It's nice to have 2 friends at the minimum. If 1 dies, you can go and cry to the other one.
Death 😂
memememememememememememememememes
I checked my facebook to see how many friends I have, and it's exactly "150"... wow that's amazing.
I was going to suggest Hutterites, (having grown up in a hutterite colony) but you actually did your research and listed them! I am impressed.
What do you miss and what do you not miss?
Egg
*Loneliness intensifies *
Lmao
Same
Fell ya
Want a Banana?
The like of this coment is 150 coincidence??
i can hardly maintain one friend :/
Aladdin Wanna be friends? :)
Michael in V1 has changed to some weird math like Napkins and octagon Hexagon. This is good stuff
I've been trimming my Facebook friends down little by little, but after watching this video I noticed I hadn't done it in a while. I went check how many I had... you guessed it. Exactly 150.
This is an awesome video. I can't get over the way you phrase sentences and the pauses it's really dramatic and it really cool ways to do your video.
I agree, the pacing feels very ununsal to me, almost intentionally off. I could listen to that for a really long time :)
It's like this in the other Vsauce channels too.
Its good until its formulaic and used unnecessarily. It's a sign that I've been on the internet for too long.
+SbaerO I do sorta agree with this.
Wholesome.
I'm a old man and come to realize that if you have 1 true friend on this trek of life you have been truly blessed ! Use caution on who you surrounded yourself with LIFE is short, make the right choice. Troy in Ohio !!!
Troy Ramsier I'm not old yet, but I already agree with that
Same here. Trust has to be built and being true to yourself and them and that person to reciprocate a bonding friendship that takes time.
That PhillyD cameo though.
Chaitanya Gupta looking for this comment because its the only reason im in the comments. #hination
Slightly disappointed that you didn't get into how within Dunbar's number, you actually eliminate the need for policing, government, and external authority in general. It's a social structure that doesn't require governance, especially if those 150 people ae all interdependently connected.
It also seems like it would drastically diminish innovativeness and quality of life (at least from a purely superficial standpoint)
150..haha..yeah....
more like the minimum number of people you'd get friendzoned by
I've not even spoken to 150 people in my life.
Florian Klein IBM 5100
Emīls Goško You definitely did.
I like your response.
150 Friends ?! Wish I had just one ;(
What is your profile pic from?
Let's be friends (=
Wanna be my buddy ?
Same here
We have 5 people here. Let's all be best buds. It's a start, lol.
Read "This Book Is Full of Spiders" by David Wong. A lot of Dunbar's number there
Aleatorio A fantastic book!
EWWW NO! I'm not gunna read something that as soon as I flip open, a bunch of creepy crawlies come out! They're so spooky!
Aleatorio oh cracked right?
Jokes on you, I have no friends.
or do you?
@@yinyang1217 I don't think this is necessary since this is the comments thread in a v sauce video but-
V-sauce music plays
@@yinyang1217 go on....
Kevin, we're not friends but I appreciate your work and would shed tears if anything bad to you or Micheal or Jake. The knowledge you three give to us for free is priceless. Oh and, as always, thanks for the video!
*trying not to cry* Yes, yes Kevin, I'd really like a banana
I really should stop watching these so late, I just get way to emotional everytime ^^
_"_ knowledge you three give to us *FOR FREE* _"_
Is Vsauce a joke to you?
1:43 that’s why the only thing Google+ has over any other social media is the Circles system.
doesn't facebook have the friends listing option?
Yes, but they’re all just Friends. By default, Google+ comes with Friends, Family, Following, Acquaintances, and Other, and you can add more.
Wyatt f
this is by far one of your most interesting videos yet! awesome job and can't wait for the next! Awesome Defranco plug too!
"While there might be such a thing as unconditional love, there is no such thing as unconditional friendship." - Tomodachi Game
Well then, I guess I don't have a neocortex...
@jonyturbo1 no, you gotta share your bananas with him first
want a nanner?
lol, for real xD I must have melted mine when I went through a substance abuse phase..
for some reason 'nanner' just cracked me up
150 likes
By the way, the term "friendzone" was popularized by a 1994 episode of the American sitcom Friends entitled "The One with the Blackout", where the character Ross Geller, who was lovesick for Rachel Green, was described by character Joey Tribbiani as being the "mayor of the friend zone".
Pedro Boscardin smartass
Vsauce made a video about that too. Just saying.
I get it, nobody else does but I gotchu
Yes, we understand what friends is
We understand what American is
You can say called instead of entitled
We all know when that episode was
We understand
So go back to Wikipedia where you got that
congrats on the rewind :D
Dude! I'd totally pick you up from the airport!
that's why there are 151 pokemons in the first generation so you will never be able to relate to them all
Achmed Tangiev we don't need ditto
Macks we don't need you
Even though you only use like 6
Leo Aguilar personally I try to use 0 of my friends.
151 likes ;D
*insert unoriginal joke about how I don’t have any friends here*
But what if... it's not a joke.
Catch 22 because the “insert joke” joke itself is unoriginal
Goopsta precisely
If you did have any real friends, one of them would have told you this joke wasn't a good idea.
Thhank you for this video! Did not expect this but i this made me feel many different things and started a cool thought pattern! Keep up the good work :)
Really good content, VS. I like your videos, but this one goes above and beyond. Well done, bro.
I love a good cup of Existential Crisis in the morning, so delicious and full of life disappointments.
Life is great, thats why its dissapointing. If you believed it was suffering, you'd only feel the joy of pleasant surprise
Potato is a TV
The Travel Guy the future is here: Potatoes
no more smart tvs; the patato is all the smarts u need!
Our brain is just....thinkable tofu.
strontiumXnitrate , Ai em sowee !
I wonder how many takes it took for him to hit the camera with the banana
BadSuperhero too many
This is inspiring, and almost tear jerking towards the end :) beautiful
'bout one fiddy
In Soviet Union everyone friend
Be union friend or it be your end
True utopia
Lie
Abrahim Stalin every one commerade
In Russia, friends make you.
I cried watching this because i have no friends
Here have a like and a comment. May we meet in another comment sections, whether we'll remind each other or not.
give a banana to a stranger and make a friend
Want a banana?
Carson Simmons you got me budy.
first share things with someone and then thoughts that you both find interest in. And then you will be able to make connection that is known as friendship.
i felt that when he said "the time needed to keep a relationship going is what can tell a best friend into someone that you used to know. couple months less than half a decade turned my best friend into an acquaintance.💀
I love how all the top comments are made by fellow introverts! Uh hi. 👋
Banana?
That's me
hey
Yeah, figure this video is good for introverts.
Correct
So, dude, would you pick me up from the airport?
Sure thing, bro.
Are you still there?
Just V-Sauce-2, no ketchup
So nice to have a video end on a good note like this :) Thank you Kevin.
I enjoeyd this so much. Thanks for putting this out.
lol i dont even know 150 people
just do what i do and make them up using *Imagination*
you likely do
I think a lot of people already know this stuff, deep down. The more 'friends' you have, the less time in the day, week, or your life you have available to divide between spending time with them. Small friend circles are best because you can devote time to people and still have free time to yourself. Large friend circles get more shallow the more people there are, and you lose any sense of closeness and cannot fully give of yourself to any person you know. Whatever this amount is changes from person to person....for me 40 people is around the maximum number of faces & personalities I can memorise and if the number rises harder than that I start not being able to recall things about them, or put names/facts to faces unless they are exceptionally distinctive/characterful personalities. I try to keep my close friends below 5. My numbers are lower as an introvert, but I imagine super social people can manage higher numbers before they forget who people are, or develop behavioural rules for shallow engagements without remembering people.
Thank you vsause for everything you are always a consistent sources of valuable information.
Some quality and entertaining content here. Thank you and keep it up.
This made me want to share my banana with a stranger.
that came out wrong
or right, it depends really.( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Over time you have become my favorite Vsauce channel Kevin, thanks for all your inspiring videos!
After I left the Mormon church I lost most of my friends, so now I have about 3 that I talk to regularly out of about 15 that I had.
Camden McCombs :/
Hasa diga eebowai
hey, put a 0 to 15' end to make it 150
100-230 is the range that has been seen while 150 is the average. Some might have 10-50, while others can have 200-300. It peaks at 150 while the maximum bell falls at 100-230.
wow, my neocortex must be super small.
Brennan The Nerd Or occupied with a lot of things, some of which you only know.
I must not have one :,)
I've got a more serious question, why do all my friends look like those little wooden people from IKEA?!? 1:30
mannequin
Absolutely amazing video. Love it, I really wanted to learn about this topic! 👌
Pausing in between phrases and sentences really helps me momentarily contemplate how true this is while still being engaged. I agree the number maybe linked to one major factor being time. I have 200 friends on facebook I only ever talk to maximum 10 per month, juggling hobbies and side jobs and a full time leaves me little time to maintain a higher interaction. Great video.
Awesome video Kevin! I love the new videos you make!
Read the title thinking they nailed the friend zone down to a science lmaoooo
Spectra Phantom Ahahaha me toooo! I thought: "Is Kevin really going to tell me how to stay out of the friend-zone quicksand? Awesome!!"
I think Vsauce already did a video on that
Nah, it's called not being desperate, and being good at at least one (real world) thing. Also have some friends you can hang out with and do things with off the internet.
Women are bothered by men constantly from mid puberty until menopause. They will reject 99% of you. It's plain evolutionary psychology, so up your mate value as there is no other answer. Who would date a C when they can date an A+? pfft.
Crimsaur -- I hope my Outlook on life is never as dull as yours...
One of the best Vsause2 episodes ever!
Very informative and provocative! Thank you for sharing!
Another fantastic work by Vsauce2. Thanks for making the world a more knowing place.
Excellent presentation. Loved every minute of it. you are in danger of becoming my favourite VSauce guy.
i do not think it is the quantity of the people, it is the quality of the friendship you have ..
I needed this video
Thank you eternally
"Until you realise how awesome it is, to share your banana with a stranger...'' I dont really know if i wanna share my banana with a stranger.......
and here i am with 2 friends, one of which is co worker i sit next to
This is too philosophical,and thats the reason why I love Vsauce2!
another incredible video, and hits me a bit close to home at the moment. i don't know if this is a common thing, but i find it difficult to limit access to me and my person according to which circle people fit into around me. friends are friends are friends right? well..not exactly. so letting people who really are more good acquaintances than friends too close and having them hurt me is too easy. trying to navigate those boundaries with social media and real life is tricky.
I have 3 friends and that's enough. I don't see them for years at a time but when I do it's as if not 2 days had passed. Then there are other people I hang out with everyday and they have never ceased to be acquaintances.
Bonding becomes more difficult with age. It's not whether you got a banana from someone or not. I know damn well who I can count on in prosperity and adversity alike.
who else had the impulse to catch the banana?
Loved this video!
Great job on the video, sweet PhillyD mini-collab!
This is actually good and not pretentious. Keep up the good work.
@Penguin 101 Maybe it's too late but i do want a banana
I don't have any friends.
welcome to the club, pal.
I wish I had friends but I don't like any humans. We are made of contradictions...
Same
Anyone want a banana?
same
I watched this when it first came out years later im here again. Great video 📹
You presentation is getting better on every video (Y)
I love this guy
Sharing your banana with a stranger, huh.
no it works, trust me. I shared an actual banana with a stranger and we became friends. I ate the banana myself in the end :( (he didn't want to eat it)
well, I dont thinks its the best Idea to ask people if they want your banana ^^
Please more videos like these
Thank you for the banana and teaching! I love your channel!❤
12 to 15 people who would care if I died? Hahahhahaha funny joke 😂
Dev Steny I would care
As soon as I heard that I started counting lol 😂😂😂
For younger kids It may be more. When I was in 1st-5th grade. Over 50 would have cared
What if I have no friends?
TheOfficialCzex I'll be your friend
You don't have a neocortex then
poor guy
xD
dingdingdingdiiiiing well he couldn't have typed that out then
plz more videos on this format
Amazing video thanks