dumbar number

The dumbar number is the number of participants in a conversation beyond which it becomes counter-productive.

The number is unique to every conversation. Some conversations have a dumbar number of 5 while some can go up to double digits depending on the mental stability, social intelligence and epistemic humility of the speakers.

Not to be confused with Dunbar’s number, which is the maximum number of social relationships a person has the cognitive capacity to maintain. So while Dunbar’s number poses a challenge to scaling trust and social cohesion in increasingly large groups, the dumbar number poses a challenge to scaling rational discourse in increasingly large conversations.

I’m leaving, this conversation is way past the dumbar number.

You’re so dumb, you lower any conversation’s dumbar number to one by joining it.

Man, I wish we had social media that increased the dumbar number across the board.