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Structural and Cognitive Mechanisms of Group Cohesion in Primates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2024

Robin Dunbar Open the ORCID record for Robin Dunbar [Opens in a new window]
Robin Dunbar*
Affiliation:
Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, Radcliffe Observatory Quarter, Oxford OX2 6GG, UK
*
Corresponding author: Robin Dunbar; Email: robin.dunbar@psy.ox.ac.uk
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Short abstract

Living in groups is more stressful and less straightforward than we usually assume. In order to live in large groups, mammals need to find solutions that allow these stresses to be defused. I show that, in primates, this has involved successively adding increasingly costly structural, behavioural, and cognitive solutions that are dependent on the evolution of large brains. Primate social evolution consists of a series of glass ceilings on group size that restrict the habitats that species could occupy.

Keywords

social networksgroomingsocial cognitionweak tiesmultilevel sociality

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Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 48 , 2025 , e162
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© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press

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