Robin Dunbar FBA FRAI
Dunbar atFestival della Scienza inItaly, 2011
Born	Robin Ian MacDonald Dunbar (1947-06-28)28 June 1947 (age 77)[2] Liverpool,Lancashire, England
Alma mater	Magdalen College, Oxford (BA, MA) University of Bristol (PhD)
Known for	Dunbar's number[3][4][5] social brain hypothesisgossip hypothesis Baboon research[6][7][8]
Spouse	Eva Patricia Melvin ​ (m. 1971)​ [2][8]
Awards	Foreign Member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters (2021) Huxley Memorial Medal (2015) Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute (FRAI) (2015) Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) (1998)
Scientific career
Fields	Anthropology Evolutionary Psychology[1]
Institutions	University of Bristol Stockholm University University of Cambridge University of Oxford University College London University of Liverpool
Thesis	The social organisation of the gelada baboon (Theropithecus gelada) (1974)
Website	www.psy.ox.ac.uk/team/robin-dunbar

Robin Ian MacDonald Dunbar (born 28 June 1947)^[9][10] is a Britishbiological anthropologist,evolutionary psychologist, and specialist inprimate behaviour.^{[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19]} Dunbar is professor emeritus of evolutionary psychology of the Social and Evolutionary Neuroscience Research Group in the Department ofExperimental Psychology at theUniversity of Oxford. He is best known for formulatingDunbar's number,^[5] a measurement of the "cognitive limit to the number of individuals with whom any one person can maintain stable relationships".^[20][21]

Dunbar, the son of an engineer, was educated atMagdalen College School, Brackley.^[2] He went on to study atMagdalen College, Oxford,^[2] where his teachers includedNiko Tinbergen; he completed hisBachelor of Arts inPsychology and Philosophy in 1969.^[2] Dunbar then went on to the Department of Psychology of theUniversity of Bristol and completed hisPhD in 1974 on thesocial organisation of thegelada,Theropithecus gelada, a monkey that is a close relative to baboons.^[22]

He spent two years as a freelance science writer.^[10] Dunbar told BBC Radio interviewerJim Al-Khalili inThe Life Scientific in 2019 that he "got his first real job" only at the age of 40.^[23]

Dunbar's academic and research career includes theUniversity of Bristol,^[8]University of Cambridge from 1977 until 1982, andUniversity College London from 1987 until 1994. In 1994, Dunbar became Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at theUniversity of Liverpool, but left Liverpool in 2007, to take up the post of Director of the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology at theUniversity of Oxford.^[9][24] In 2012, Dunbar migrated over to the Department of Experimental Psychology at theUniversity of Oxford, after receiving a competitive research grant from theEuropean Research Council.

Dunbar was formerly co-director of theBritish 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 theUniversity of Liverpool Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioural Ecology Research Group.

In 2015, Dunbar was awarded the Huxley Memorial Medal—established in 1900 in memory ofThomas Henry Huxley—for services to anthropology by the council of theRoyal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, the highest honour at the disposal of the RAI. Dunbar is also aHumanists UK Distinguished Supporter of Humanism.

• 2015, Huxley Memorial Medal,Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
• 1998, Elected Fellow of theBritish Academy (FBA)^[10]
• 1994,ad hominem Chair, Psychology, University of Liverpool^[25]

Dunbar's work is mentioned inThe Big Bang Theory, Season 4, Episode 20 ("The Herb Garden Germination"), whenAmy Farrah Fowler is talking withSheldon Cooper while listening to a lecture byBrian Greene (2011).

Dunbar is a featured character in the adaptation ofYuval Noah Harari's bookSapiens: A Brief History of Humankind intographic novel (2020).

Dunbar's work is described in the epilogue ofBlake Crouch's novelUpgrade (2022).

• Dunbar. 1984.Reproductive Decisions: An Economic Analysis of Gelada Baboon Social Strategies. Princeton University PressISBN 0-691-08360-6
• Dunbar. 1987.Demography and Reproduction. InPrimate Societies.Smuts, B.B., Cheney, D.L., Seyfarth, R.M.,Wrangham, R.W., Struhsaker, T.T. (eds). Chicago & London:University of Chicago Press. pp. 240–249ISBN 0-226-76715-9
• Dunbar. 1988.Primate Social Systems. Chapman Hall and Yale University PressISBN 0-8014-2087-3
• Foley, Robert & Dunbar, Robin (14 October 1989). "Beyond the bones of contention".New ScientistVol.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. MacmillanISBN 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 PressISBN 0-8135-2730-9
• Dunbar & Barrett. 2000.Cousins. BBC Worldwide: LondonISBN 0-7894-7155-8
• Cowlishaw & Dunbar. 2000.Primate Conservation Biology. University of Chicago PressISBN 0-226-11636-0
• Barrett, Dunbar & Lycett. 2002.Human Evolutionary Psychology. London: PalgraveISBN 0-691-09621-X
• Dunbar, Barrett & Lycett. 2005.Evolutionary Psychology, a Beginner's Guide. Oxford: One World BooksISBN 1-85168-356-9
• Dunbar. 2004.The Human Story. London: Faber and FaberISBN 0-571-19133-9
• Dunbar. 2010.How Many Friends Does One Person Need?: Dunbar's Number and Other Evolutionary Quirks. London: Faber & FaberISBN 978-0571253432 (paper)
• Dunbar. 2014.Human Evolution.Pelican BooksISBN 978-0141975313
• Dunbar. 2016.Human Evolution: Our Brains and Behavior (Illustrated)ISBN 0-1906-1678-4
• Dunbar. 2021.Friends: Understanding the Power of our Most Important Relationships.Little, Brown and CompanyISBN 978-1408711736
• Dunbar. 2022.How Religion Evolved: And Why It Endures. Pelican BooksISBN 978-0241431788
• Camilleri, Rockey & Dunbar. 2023.The Social Brain: The Psychology of Successful Groups London: PenguinISBN 978-1847943620

Scholia has a profile forRobin Dunbar(Q1935522).

• The Human Behaviour and Evolution Society
• What Makes us Human Pulse Project Podcast: What Makes us Human? (22 October 2008, Oxford)
• University of Oxford Department of Experimental Psychology profile

• British evolutionary biologists
• Evolutionary psychologists
• Primatologists
• Human evolution theorists
• 1947 births
• Living people
• Linguists from the United Kingdom
• British anthropologists
• Anthropology writers
• Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford
• Academics of University College London
• Fellows of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland
• Fellows of the British Academy
• Fellows of Magdalen College, Oxford

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