Robin Dunbar, anthropologist: ‘A good network of friends increases your life expectancy’

In 1993, Brazilian singer Roberto Carlos sang: “I want to have a million friends, so that I can sing louder.” But that same year, in cold and faraway England, Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist and primatologist from Oxford University, proclaimed that such a desire was impossible. He noted that humans cannot have more than 150 significant relationships at a time.

In the end, the song was a hit… and so was the theory of 150 friends. So much so that it became popularly known as “Dunbar’s number.”

More than 30 years have passed since then, while many things have changed. In Brazil, it’s no longer Roberto Carlos, but rather Anitta who’s the most internationally-known artist. And she doesn’t sing hymns to friendship, but danceable hits like I’d Rather Have Sex. Social media made us believe that we could have thousands of friends (with the concept of “friend” eventually changing to the concept of “follower”). The world began to move faster — people began to have less free time. The theory of “liquid modernity” became popular, which speaks of a provisional world eager for novelty, in which immutable institutions such as work, love, or friendship are transitory.

Then, a pandemic broke out, forcing us to lock ourselves up at home and value the importance of human connections. In the United States, people began to talk about a “friendship recession” — a phenomenon that is especially acute among men. According to a survey by Gallup and the Survey Center on American Life, the percentage of men who claim to have at least six close friends has been halved between 1990 and 2022. One in five singles say they have no close friends. So, in this context, is Dunbar’s number still valid?

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