THE HUXLEY MEMORIAL LECTURE

will be given by

Professor Robin Dunbar, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford

Dunbar’s Number: How Constrained Is Your Social World?

Friday 4 December 2015 at 5.30pm, in the BP Lecture Theatre, Clore Education Centre, the British Museum, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DG.

The Social Brain Hypothesis, first proposed in the 1980s, predicted a natural grouping size for modern humans of about 150, now known as Dunbar’s Number. Since then, a plethora of comparative and neuroimaging research has confirmed both the Social Brain Hypothesis and the predicted size of human social groups, and shown that Dunbar’s Number applies also to personal social networks. More importantly, we have in the process learned a great deal more about the nature of the social relationships that underpin the Social Brain Hypothesis. I will explore the cognitive and ecological reasons why social groups are limited in size, why they have the peculiar layered structure that they do, and how modern humans have broken through the constraints on social group size that these impose.

The event is free, but places must be booked. Please book your place at http://huxleydunbar.eventbrite.co.uk

Enquiries to: RAI, 50 Fitzroy St, London W1T 5 BT; tel 020 7387 0455; email