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As someone who completely agrees with the premise of Dunbar’s theories (‘friends are important’) and who was excited to read his work, I was pretty devastated by the shoddiness and fraudulence of this book. Now, I’d treat any scientific paper he had a hand in with skepticism. In the book he first go Leggi tutto

Definitely some insightful things here. However, I think there's also a lot of conjecture and the author seems to have some very ... interesting.... ideas about women - at one point he suggests that women talk less in mixed-sex large groups because the pitch of their voices makes it difficult for th Leggi tutto

In this book, eminent Professor Robin Dunbar discusses friendships. His treatise covers the evolutionary origin of friendship, the brain mechanisms of individual differences in social skills, differences in friendship style between men and women, changing friendships across the lifespan, differences Leggi tutto

Maybe I had the wrong expectations, I expected something more practical than a review of all the science experiments the author was involved in. Some of the insights are interesting (e.g. the 7 pillars of friendship), though very much spread out through the book. The last chapter feels rushed to put Leggi tutto

A very thorough read with interesting insights, covering all social relationships, not just friends. The description of each study got a little tiring towards the end, but still learned a lot from their insights. 3.5/5

The impact of this book was a solid 5 out of 5 for me. I learned a lot about friendships, including different types like weak ties, strong ties, and dormant ties. Each type of friendship helps in different situations, and the book explains how to maintain them. The "layer of friends" theory with num Leggi tutto