This number was first proposed in the 1990s by British Anthropologist Robin Dunbar who suggested a cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships in which an individual knows who each person is and how each person relates to every other person.
Dunbar’s research suggested that these 150 people are made up of:
· 5 intimate friends
· 15 good friends (including the 5 intimate friends)
· 50 friends (including the 5 intimate friends and 15 good friends)
· 150 acquaintances (all-encompassing)
The number can be said to derive from our brain’s ability to maintain memories of 150 people, as well as the time necessary to devote to the group in order to keep relationships going. In Neolithic times farming communities were known to be around 150 people before it split into a separate community. In modern times however, we are exposed to thousands of people and the resultant stress of living together in such large numbers is quite evident.
Here is a video of Robin Dunbar speaking on this subject:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppLFce5uZ3I
With the latest Covid -19 Pandemic people are forced to stay at home, even if mostly voluntary. This may indeed result in moving back to the concept of operating in small communities, all be it primarily on-line.
I think a way of connecting with more than 150 people, given this unprecedented circumstance is to nurture one’s own community of 150 people, and to allow each of those 150 people to in turn reach out to their own community of 150. Keeping in mind that building relationships takes an investment of time and practicing emotional intelligence. For business, this could potentially mean that, to the extent that you build trusting relationships with your own group, so each of those people can recommend your services to their group
150 x 150 gives one a reach of as many as 22,500 people, and this could grow exponentially as time goes on, and could well become the new basis for networking, all be it primarily on-line. I would love to hear your thoughts and comments on this theory.
