London - You may have hundreds of “friends” on Facebook, but in real life we are likely to have no more than four devoted pals.
Humans are only designed to be close to a few friends and everyone else is put into layers of decreasing intimacy, an Oxford University study reveals.
Researchers analysed six billion mobile calls made by 35 million people and discovered four layers of closeness based on how many times people phoned each other.
The innermost layer contained just 4.1 people – with whom we spend 40 percent of our time. The second layer had another seven, the third 18 and the fourth almost 100.
Even with some variation for introverts and extroverts, the findings were generally the same.
Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary psychology, said such layering appeared to be a “robust feature of social organisation”. Having a larger group of close friends would require more brain power – which we simply don’t have, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Review reported.
Daily Mail