文献类型：期刊文献

英文题名：Discrete hierarchical organization of social group sizes

作者：Zhou, WX; Sornette, D; Hill, RA; Dunbar, RIM

机构：[1]Univ Liverpool, Sch Biol Sci, British Acad Centenary Project, Liverpool L69 7ZB, Merseyside, England;[2]E China Univ Sci & Technol, State Key Lab Chem React Engn, Shanghai 200237, Peoples R China;[3]Univ Calif Los Angeles, Inst Geophys & Planetary Sci, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA;[4]Univ Calif Los Angeles, Dept Earth & Space Sci, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA;[5]CNRS, UMR 6622, Phys Mat Condensee Lab, F-06108 Nice, France;[6]Univ Nice, F-06108 Nice, France;[7]Univ Durham, Dept Anthropol, Evolutionary Anthropol Res Grp, Durham DH1 3HN, England

年份：2005

卷号：272

期号：1561

起止页码：439

外文期刊名：PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES

收录：;WOS:【SSCI(收录号:WOS:000227809000012)，SCI-EXPANDED(收录号:WOS:000227809000012)】；

语种：英文

外文关键词：social brain hypothesis; social group size; log-periodicity; fractal analysis

摘要：The `social brain hypothesis' for the evolution of large brains in primates has led to evidence for the coevolution of neocortical size and social group sizes, suggesting that there is a cognitive constraint on group size that depends, in some way, on the volume of neural material available for processing and synthesizing information on social relationships. More recently, work on both human and non-human primates has suggested that social groups are often hierarchically structured. We combine data on human grouping patterns in a comprehensive and systematic study. Using fractal analysis, we identify, with high statistical confidence, a discrete hierarchy of group sizes with a preferred scaling ratio close to three: rather than a single or a continuous spectrum of group sizes, humans spontaneously form groups of preferred sizes organized in a geometrical series approximating 3-5, 9-15, 30-45, etc. Such discrete scale invariance could be related to that identified in signatures of herding behaviour in financial markets and might reflect a hierarchical processing of social nearness by human brains.