pollinate SCIO

What is it: Working on the hypothesis that brain size reflects the complexity of the social lives of the primate, scientists have calculated the optimal size of social groups for primates with different size brains. They went on and projected this to human sized brains and estimate that the optimal intimate clique size is about 12, and the optimal social group size is about 150.

Referring to this optimal social size as our “monkeysphere”, the authors of a cracked.com article work up a whole host of implications on how these limitations affect our lives, often with humourous effect, but always with a kernel of “truthiness.

The rule of 150 for social groups is discussed in the Tipping Point. Gore-Tex limits all their office sizes to 150. Once there is more than 150 employees in an office they split the group and set up a new office. A similar trend is seen in church group congregations too. Though this is not deliberately done, they tend to find that once the group gets above 150 then it naturally begins to divide.

Why is it cool: Aside from the obvious opportunity to have a bit of a laugh over our (collective) monkeyness, the social observations are quite pertinent, from identifying optimal team sizes for projects, to understanding how to communicate to all those other monkeys who don’t see each other as within their monkeyspheres, to the role of sustainability and green-thought in raising awareness of lives beyond your monkeysphere.

Where to find it: original research here! fun application here!

Submitted by: John Cucka/Dom McCarthy