May 4, 2016.
According to a study by researchers at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), our brains would not allow us to have more than 5 best friends. Explanations.
We only have 5 real friends
MIT researchers set out to find out how many privileged relationships the human brain is capable of handling. For that, they deciphered 6 billion phone calls made by 35 million people. They assumed that you could only talk about friendly relations when two people took the time to call each other on the phone. Social networks were not taken into account.
Results : people called on average only 5 people regularly. The researchers only considered people who had called at least 100 contacts and only focused their research on reciprocal calls, for avoid counting professional calls. Thus, they were able to assess that privileged relationships are rare but that, on the other hand, the network of acquaintances can be wider.
But we can have relationships with 150 people
According to the researchers, this “ social sphere »Can go up to 150 knowledge. She ” represents people with whom we have real relationships, with whom we have developed mutual obligations », Explains Robin Varier, professor of psychology at the University of Oxford. It is all this knowledge that we enjoy rediscovering, but which is not an integral part of our daily life.
The development of social networks has not enlarged this ” social sphere “, according to the study. ” People can have 500 or even 1000 friends on Facebook, this includes only their acquaintances or people they just know by sight, no more. », Adds the professor. In short, it is not because we have 500 friends on Facebook that our social life is more active …
Read also: At what age do we have the most friends?
