FILE ON ROBIN DUNBARPerson

Robin Dunbar

The human cognitive limit for stable social relationships is approximately 150 — "Dunbar's number". social media has not raised Dunbar's number.

2 SOURCES · 6 DOCUMENTED FACTS · 1 DISPUTED · OPENED 2026-07-24 · UPDATED 2026-07-24
On the record see profile →

The human cognitive limit for stable social relationships is approximately 150 — "Dunbar's number"

social media has not raised Dunbar's number

the human cognitive limit for stable social relationships is approximately 150

# A Comprehensive Map of Marshall McLuhan's Thought: Concept
“the human cognitive limit for stable social relationships is approximately 150 — "Dunbar's number."”
VERIFIED — a word-for-word match in the stored source

Dunbar's number has been validated across hunter-gatherer band sizes, military units, Hutterite communities, Christmas-card lists, telephone-calling networks, Facebook friend-graphs, and online gaming clans

# A Comprehensive Map of Marshall McLuhan's Thought: Concept
“The number has been validated across hunter-gatherer band sizes, military units, Hutterite communities, Christmas-card lists, telephone-calling networks, Facebook friend-graphs, and online gaming clans (Dunbar's 2020 and 2023 reviews; though contested by a 2021 Stockholm group, the original finding has held up across most subsequent replications).”
VERIFIED — a word-for-word match in the stored source

Digital tools do not raise the ceiling of stable social group size

The Dunbar number is approximately 150

Deep Research Pass: "The Medium Becomes the Ground"
“neocortex size constrains stable social group size”
VERIFIED — a word-for-word match in the stored source
Disputed — who says what, against what see standalone →

These are things people say about Robin Dunbar that aren't settled fact — each one attributed to who's actually claiming it, so a claim never quietly passes as established just because it showed up in a document. Weigh it yourself.

Disputed
"Combining McLuhan's identity-thesis with Dunbar's social-brain model and contemporary research on group polarisation would produce a more rigorous theory."
Unattributed assertion · stance: pro
Not yet independently weighed — one source's claim, unconfirmed elsewhere.
# A Comprehensive Map of Marshall McLuhan's Thought: Concept ↗