你信么? 人这辈子亲密朋友只有5个！

 You might not have as many close friends as you think. Researchers have provided new evidence that lends weight to a theory that says you can only maintain five close friendships.

你的亲密朋友也许没有你想的那么多。研究员提供的新证据强调了一种观点，你只能维护好与5个人的亲密友谊。

You’ve probably heard of Dunbar’s Number which suggests that human beings can only maintain meaningful relationships with between 100 to 230 other people, and that number is typically 150.

你可能听说过邓巴数，它指出人只能与其他100~230个人维持有意义的人际关系，而且这个数字通常是150。

你信么? 人这辈子亲密朋友只有5个！

But you might not know that Robin¹ Dunbar, the anthropologist² behind the number, has since also suggested that those relationships are layered, like an onion. He argues that people typically have five ultra-close relationships, then 10 slightly less cozy³ companions, 35 at more distance, and then 100 in an outer circle. Now he and follow researchers have published data that appears to lend weight to the theory.

但是你也许不知道这个数字背后的人类学家罗宾·邓巴，他后来也指出，人际关系就像洋葱一样，是分层的。他表示人们通常有5个非常亲密的朋友，10个稍微不那么默契的朋友，35个有些距离的朋友，然后是100个自己圈子以外的朋友。如今他和他的研究员公布的数据，似乎给该理论盖棺定论了。

The remaining data was then clustered, to sort out whether there was layering in friendship closeness, where closeness was measured by the frequency of calls between two individuals. Turns out that the clusters shape up rather similarly to Dunbar’s suggestions. The results are published on arXiv.

此外，剩余的数据是成串的，要整理出亲密友谊是否分层，而亲密度是通过衡量两个人之间通电话的频率来得出的。结果发现，这串数据发展成邓巴观点，更确切的说，与邓巴观点相似。这个研究结果被发表在arXiv上。

1 robin   

n.知更鸟，红襟鸟

参考例句：

• The robin is the messenger of spring.知更鸟是报春的使者。
• We knew spring was coming as we had seen a robin.我们看见了一只知更鸟，知道春天要到了。

2 anthropologist   

n.人类学家，人类学者

参考例句：

• The lecturer is an anthropologist.这位讲师是人类学家。
• The anthropologist unearthed the skull of an ancient human at the site.人类学家在这个遗址挖掘出那块古人类的颅骨。

3 cozy   

adj.亲如手足的，密切的，暖和舒服的

参考例句：

• I like blankets because they are cozy.我喜欢毛毯，因为他们是舒适的。
• We spent a cozy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。