Cognitive resource allocation determines the organization of personal networks.

ABSTRACT: The typical human personal social network contains about 150 relationships including kin, friends, and acquaintances, organized into a set of hierarchically inclusive layers of increasing size but decreasing emotional intensity. Data from a number of different sources reveal that these inclusive layers exhibit a constant scaling ratio of [Formula: see text] While the overall size of the networks has been connected to our cognitive capacity, no mechanism explaining why the networks present a layered structure with a consistent scaling has been proposed. Here we show that the existence of a heterogeneous cost to relationships (in terms of time or cognitive investment), together with a limitation in the total capacity an individual has to invest in them, can naturally explain the existence of

SUBMITTER: Tamarit I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6099867 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature