Robin Dunbar

Robin Ian MacDonald Dunbar ^[2][3] is a British anthropologist and evolutionary psychologist and a specialist in primate behaviour.^[4][5][6] He is currently Professor of Evolutionary Psychology and head of the Social Neuroscience Group in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford. From 2007-2012, he was Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology and the Director of the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at the University of Oxford and the Co-director of the British Academy Centenary Research Project. He is best known for formulating Dunbar's number^[1], roughly 150, a measurement of the "cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships".^[7]

Early life and education

Dunbar, son of an engineer, received his early education at Magdalen College School, Brackley. He then went onto Magdalen College, Oxford, where his teachers included Nico Tinbergen and completed his Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Philosophy in 1969. Dunbar then went onto the Department of Psychology of the University of Bristol and completed his Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology in 1973.

He spent two years as a freelance science writer.^[3]

Academic career

Dunbar's academic and research career includes the University of Bristol,^[8] University of Cambridge from 1977 until 1982, and University College London from 1987 until 1994. In 1994, Dunbar became Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at University of Liverpool, but he left Liverpool in 2007 to take up the post of Director of the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford.^[2][9]

Professor Dunbar was formerly co-director of the British Academy Centenary Research Project (BACRP) "From Lucy to Language: The Archaeology of the Social Brain" and was involved in the BACRP "Identifying the Universal Religious Repertoire".

Digital versions of selected published articles authored or co-authored by him are available from the University of Liverpool Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioural Ecology Research Group.

Dunbar is also a British Humanist Association Distinguished Supporter of Humanism.

Honours

• 1998, Elected Fellow of the British Academy (FBA)^[3]
• 1994, ad hominem Chair, Psychology, University of Liverpool^[10]

References

Selected publications

• Dunbar. 1984. Reproductive Decisions: An Economic Analysis of Gelada Baboon Social Strategies. Princeton University Press ISBN 0-691-08360-6
• Dunbar. 1987. Demography and Reproduction. In Primate Societies. Smuts, B.B., Cheney, D.L., Seyfarth, R.M., Wrangham, R.W., Struhsaker, T.T. (eds). Chicago & London:University of Chicago Press. pp.240-249 ISBN 0-226-76715-9
• Dunbar. 1988. Primate Social Systems. Chapman Hall and Yale University Press ISBN 0-8014-2087-3
• Foley, Robert & Dunbar, Robin (14 October 1989). "Beyond the bones of contention". New Scientist Vol.124 (No.1686) pp.21-25.
• Dunbar. 1996. The Trouble with Science. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-91019-2
• Dunbar (ed.). 1995. Human Reproductive Decisions. Macmillan ISBN 0-333-62051-8
• Dunbar. 1997. Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language'. Harvard University Press. ISBN 0-674-36334-5
• Runciman, Maynard Smith, & Dunbar (eds.). 1997. Evolution of Culture and Language in Primates and Humans. Oxford University Press.
• Dunbar, Knight, & Power (eds.). 1999. The Evolution of Culture. Edinburgh University Press ISBN 0-8135-2730-9
• Dunbar & Barrett. 2000. Cousins. BBC Worldwide: London ISBN 0-7894-7155-8
• Cowlishaw & Dunbar. 2000. Primate Conservation Biology. University of Chicago Press ISBN 0-226-11636-0
• Barrett, Dunbar & Lycett. 2002. Human Evolutionary Psychology. London: Palgrave ISBN 0-691-09621-X
• Dunbar, Barrett & Lycett. 2005. Evolutionary Psychology, a Beginner's Guide. Oxford: One World Books ISBN 1-85168-356-9
• Dunbar. 2004. The Human Story. London: Faber and Faber ISBN 0-571-19133-9

External links

• Research profile at the Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioural Ecology Research Group, University of Liverpool.
• Publications list for the Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioural Ecology Research Group.
• "The Social Brain Hypothesis" by Dunbar (1998). (archive)
• The Human Behaviour and Evolution Society
• What Makes us Human Pulse Project Podcast: What Makes us Human? (22 October 2008, Oxford)
• University of Oxford Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology profile