Ep 85: How many friends can you have? | Robin Dunbar (Emeritus Professor, Evolutionary Psychology, Oxford University)
Robin Dunbar MA PhD DSc(Hon) FRAI FBA is Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University
of Oxford, an Emeritus Fellow of Magdalen College, and an elected Fellow of the British Academy
and the Royal Anthropological Institute, and Foreign Member of the Finnish Academy of Science &
Letters. His principal research interests focus on the evolution of sociality (with particular reference
to primates and humans). He is best known for the social brain hypothesis, the gossip theory of
language evolution and Dunbar’s Number (the limit on the number of manageable relationships). His
publications include 15 academic books and 550 journal articles and book chapters. His popular
science books include The Trouble With Science; Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language;
The Science of Love and Betrayal; Human Evolution; Evolution: What Everyone Needs To Know;
Friends: Understanding the Power of Our Most Important Relationships; and How Religion Evolved.
