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Dr. Robin Dunbar - Legendary Evolutionary Behavioral Scientist (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_910)

Nov 3, 2025

Guest

Robin Dunbar

Robin Dunbar, a Professor Emeritus at Oxford and the mind behind 'Dunbar's number,' dives into his fascinating journey from studying gelada baboons to understanding human social behavior. He discusses the significance of his 150-person group size prediction and its impact on tech and business. Bridging humanities with evolutionary science, he reflects on literature's role in storytelling. Dunbar also addresses the resistance to evolutionary psychology in academia and shares insights on ongoing research, including his new book on social evolution.

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ANECDOTE

Gelada Fieldwork Shaped A Career

Robin Dunbar studied gelada baboons for his PhD and later did postdoc fieldwork in Ethiopia.
He also spent years studying ungulates in East Africa and Scotland before switching to humans.

insights

INSIGHT

Why Dunbar's Number Is ~150

Comparing primate grooming and neocortex size predicts human natural social group size around 150.
That predicted number aligns with community-level groupings across multiple ethnographic datasets.

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ANECDOTE

150 Pops Up In Labs And Weddings

Gad Saad recounts predicting a lab's social network average as 150 and being correct.
He also found the average number of wedding guests near 148, illustrating Dunbar's cultural resonance.

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Robin Dunbar's Academic Beginnings and Training

00:55 • 2min

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Fieldwork Origins: Studying Gelada Baboons and Ungulates

02:57 • 3min

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Transition from Nonhuman Primates to Human Social Behavior

06:10 • 2min

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Deriving Dunbar's Number: Predicting Human Group Size

07:48 • 2min

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Dunbar's Number in Practice and Popular Culture

10:16 • 4min

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Consilience: Bridging Humanities and Evolutionary Science

13:59 • 8min

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Resistance to Evolutionary Approaches in the Human Sciences

22:00 • 6min

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Defending Comparative Analyses and Including Humans

27:45 • 2min

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Applying Evolutionary Insights in Business and Advertising

29:27 • 4min

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Can We Overcome the Anti-Evolutionary Bias?

33:40 • 7min

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Robin Dunbar's Personal Epiphany in Evolutionary Thinking

41:08 • 6min

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Academic Community and Field Immersion Importance

47:13 • 2min

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Life as Professor Emeritus: Ongoing Research and Writing

49:36 • 4min

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New Academic Book: Four Fundamental Forces of Social Evolution

53:40 • 4min

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Interests Beyond Academia: Literature, History, and Novels

57:27 • 1min

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Regrets and Missed Career Paths

The Trouble With Science

Robin Dunbar

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Defenders of the Truth

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In 'The Parasitic Mind,' Dr. Gad Saad exposes the harmful effects of 'idea pathogens'—irrational and logically flawed ideas that are spreading through universities and enforced by the tyranny of political correctness. These ideas, Saad argues, are endangering fundamental freedoms such as freedom of thought and speech. The book is a call to action, encouraging readers to use critical thinking and courage to defend reason and intellectual freedom. Saad discusses various topics including university 'safe spaces,' gender ideology, postmodernism, and the decline of intellectual diversity in academia, all while advocating for the importance of questioning and challenging prevailing dogma.

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The selfish gene

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Richard Dawkins

In 'The Selfish Gene', Richard Dawkins presents a gene-centred view of evolution, arguing that genes are the primary units of selection and that they behave selfishly to ensure their own replication. The book explains concepts such as kin selection, inclusive fitness, and the evolutionarily stable strategy, highlighting how these mechanisms can lead to altruistic behaviors in organisms. Dawkins emphasizes that the 'selfishness' of genes is a metaphorical concept, describing their evolutionary consequences rather than any intentional behavior. The book has been influential in shaping modern evolutionary thought and remains relevant today.

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Pride and Prejudice

Jane Austen

Published in 1813, 'Pride and Prejudice' is a novel that revolves around the lives of the Bennet family, particularly the second eldest daughter, Elizabeth. The story is set in the early 19th century and explores themes of love, societal expectations, and personal growth. The novel centers on Elizabeth's tumultuous relationship with the wealthy and proud Mr. Darcy, whose initial arrogance and reserve gradually give way to a deeper understanding and mutual respect. Through their interactions, both characters learn to overcome their prejudices and flaws, leading to a transformative journey of self-discovery and redemption. The novel also delves into the societal pressures on women to secure marriages, the importance of family, and the nuances of social hierarchy during the British Regency period.

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The Evolutionary Bases of Consumption

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This book by Gad Saad is the first academic work to demonstrate the Darwinian roots of a wide range of consumption phenomena. It maps consumption behaviors onto four key Darwinian modules: survival, reproduction, kin selection, and reciprocal altruism. The book explores how evolutionary theory explains various consumption behaviors, including mate choice, food preferences, gift giving, and dark side consumption such as pathological gambling and compulsive buying. It also discusses how media and advertising contents reflect our evolved human nature.

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Consilience

The Unity of Knowledge

Edward O. Wilson

In 'Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge', E.O. Wilson advocates for the integration of knowledge from different fields to create a unified theory of understanding. He draws on the concept of consilience, introduced by William Whewell, which means the 'jumping together' of knowledge by linking facts and theories across disciplines. Wilson explores the chemistry of the mind, the genetic bases of culture, and the biological principles underlying works of art. He argues that a unified approach can lead to a deeper understanding of the human condition and the natural world, and he critiques the fragmentation of knowledge into separate disciplines. The book is a call for a new Enlightenment, emphasizing the importance of science and reason in understanding all aspects of human existence.

Robin is a professor emeritus of evolutionary psychology of the Social and Evolutionary Neuroscience Research group in the Department of Experimental Psychology at the University of Oxford.

He is the author of many books including:

Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language (1997)

Human Story (2004)

How Many Friends Does One Person Need? Dunbar’s Number and Other Evolutionary Quirks (2010)

Friends: Understanding the Power of Our Most Important Relationships (2021)

How Religion Evolved: And Why It Endures (2022)

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This clip was posted on November 3, 2025 on my YouTube channel as THE SAAD TRUTH_1930: https://youtu.be/pffErr-6pOw

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Dr. Gad Saad is a professor, evolutionary behavioral scientist, and author who pioneered the use of evolutionary psychology in marketing and consumer behavior. In addition to his scientific work, Dr. Saad is a leading public intellectual who often writes and speaks about idea pathogens that are destroying logic, science, reason, and common sense.

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