Study Finds Falling in Love Will Cost You Two Close Friends
Posted on September 15, 2010
Do you want to fall in love? It will probaby cost you two close friends. A new Oxford University study has found that falling in love will cost a person two close friends. The BBC reports that researchers questioned people about how their inner core of friendships changed after they fell in love. The number of close friends fell by an average of two when a new lover came into a person's life.
Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Oxford, said, "People who are in romantic relationships - instead of having the typical five [individuals] on average, they only have four in that circle. And bearing in mind that one [of] those is the new person that's come into your life, it means you've had to give up two others."
Professor Robin Dunbar is also behind the research that found the maximum number of friends it is realistically possible to engage is around 150. This number has become known as Dunbar's number.
