Size and structure of freely forming conversational groups

Data from various settings suggest that there is an upper limit of about four on the number of individuals who can interact in spontaneous conversation. This limit appears to be a consequence of the mechanisms of speech production and detection. There appear to be no differences between men and women in this respect, other than those introduced by women's lighter voice.The full-text of this article is not currently available in ORA, but the original publication is available at springerlink.com (which you may be able to access via the publisher copy link on this record page). N.B. Professor Dunbar is now based at the School of Anthropology & Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford