An excellent article about what your Christmas card list has to do with your brain size. Actually, not just yours, but everyone’s:
… according to anthropologist Robin Dunbar, Ph.D., the social relationships that were forged during the dawn of humanity still influence everything from Christmas card lists to Facebook networks. … Dunbar, head of the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Oxford, says the size of the human neocortex puts a limit on the size of our social networks–a limit that can be seen in examples throughout history.
Now, I’m waiting to see the corresponding research from psychologists determining what kind of psychosis you have if your Facebook friend group VASTLY outnumbers 150. You know who you are! Actually, I wonder if these new digital social groups even fit (neocortex-wise) into the same part of the brain as our regular social groups.
By Maggie Koerth-Baker writing at Boing Boing. You can find Maggie’s site here. Chimp pic by tiswango.