Social networks, support cliques, and kinship
Dunbar and Spoors asked people in several British populations to name the adults they contact at least once a month, and used the answers to measure the size and composition of real social networks. The totals correspond closely to what is usually called the sympathy group, the layer of people who matter rather than the whole acquaintance list. Men and women reported networks of the same overall size, but women's contained more women and more relatives. Relatives made up a greater share of these networks than chance would produce, and the pattern within that is the finding this vault cites: people from larger families carry proportionately fewer friends, as though the network has a ceiling and kin occupy the places first, whether the limit is time or mental capacity. Inside the network sits a smaller group, the support clique, whom a person turns to for advice or help in difficulty. Relatives are no more prominent there than in the wider network, and both sexes strongly prefer their own.
Dunbar and Spoors asked people in several British populations to name the adults they contact at least once a month, and used the answers to measure the size and composition of real social networks. The totals correspond closely to what is usually called the sympathy group, the layer of people who matter rather than the whole acquaintance list. Men and women reported networks of the same overall size, but women's contained more women and more relatives. Relatives made up a greater share of these networks than chance would produce, and the pattern within that is the finding this vault cites: people from larger families carry proportionately fewer friends, as though the network has a ceiling and kin occupy the places first, whether the limit is time or mental capacity. Inside the network sits a smaller group, the support clique, whom a person turns to for advice or help in difficulty. Relatives are no more prominent there than in the wider network, and both sexes strongly prefer their own.
Written from the abstract, Europe PMC.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
Dunbar, R. I. M., & Spoors, M. (1995). “Social networks, support cliques, and kinship.” Human Nature, 6(3), 273-290.
Where we use it
- Cliques Are a Stress Response, Why We Belong
Reliability of this reference
The link below was matched against the publisher's record on title, first author and year, and all three agree.
The source
https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02734142
DOI: 10.1007/bf02734142