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15 Great Resources For Your Dunbar’s Number Research

06/06/2025|Brian D. Colwell|

The following Dunbar’s Number resources are in chronological order by publication date. Enjoy!

  1. 1086 – Doomsday Book (medieval english survey record) – https://www.britannica.com/topic/Domesday-Book 
  2. 1993 – Coevolution of neocortical size, group size and language in humans (R. I. M. Dunbar) – https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/behavioral-and-brain-sciences/article/abs/coevolution-of-neocortical-size-group-size-and-language-in-humans/4290FF4D7362511136B9A15A96E74FEF
  3. 2011 – Employee Engagement – is 150 the Magic Number, plus something else? (WhatsthePONT) – https://whatsthepont.blog/2011/12/15/employee-engagement-is-150-the-magic-number-plus-something-else/ 
  4. 2011 – Modeling Users’ Activity on Twitter Networks: Validation of Dunbar’s Number (Bruno Gonçalves, Nicola Perra, Alessandro Vespignani) – https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3149601/
  5. 2012 – Three Questions for Robin Dunbar (Will Knight) – https://www.technologyreview.com/2012/07/12/19077/three-questions-for-robin-dunbar/ 
  6. 2014 – The Limits of Friendship (Maria Konnikova) – https://www.newyorker.com/science/maria-konnikova/social-media-affect-math-dunbar-number-friendships 
  7. 2017 – The Rule of 150 – Dunbars Number and business growth (Rob Lambert) – https://www.cultivatedmanagement.com/the-rule-of-150/ 
  8. 2018 – THE IMPLICATIONS OF DUNBAR’S NUMBER: NETWORK SIZE AND SOCIAL TIES (BU College of Communication) – https://sites.bu.edu/cmcs/2018/10/01/the-implications-of-dunbars-number-network-size-and-social-ties/ 
  9. 2019 – Why you need a network of low stake, casual friends (Volpe) – https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/06/smarter-living/why-you-need-a-network-of-low-stakes-casual-friendships.html
  10. 2020 – Achieve efficiency in groups using Dunbar’s number (Janet Anderson) – https://www.rolandberger.com/en/Insights/Publications/Achieve-efficiency-in-groups-using-Dunbar%E2%80%99s-number.html 
  11. 2021 – ‘Dunbar’s number’ deconstructed (Patrik Lindenfors, Andreas Wartel, Johan Lind) – https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0158 
  12. 2022 – Dunbar’s Number, Psychological Safety and Team Size (Psychology Safety) – https://psychsafety.co.uk/psychological-safety-82-dunbars-number-and-team-size/
  13. 2022 – Understanding Dunbar’s Number: The Key to Better Social Networks and Efficient Team Sizes (ochronus) – https://leadership.garden/dunbars-numbers/ 
  14. 2023 – A Promise Theory Perspective on The Role of Intent in Group Dynamics (v0.2) (M. Burgess, R.I.M. Dunbar) – https://psychsafety.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/A_Promise_Theory_Perspective_onThe_Role_of_Intent_in_Group_Dynamics__v0_1___1_.pdf
  15. 2024 – Dunbar’s Number (Model Thinkers) – https://modelthinkers.com/mental-model/dunbars-number

Thanks for reading!

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