How to understand people better: three psychological theories

Dunbar's number

Researcher Robin Dunbar binding activity of the neocortex, the main part of the cerebral cortex of the brain, with levels of social activity.

He considered the size of social groups in different animals, and the number of partners involved in grooming (an important part of courtship, for example, shuffling wool primates).

It turned out that the size of the neocortex is directly related to the number of individuals in the community and with the number of those who brushed each other (analogue communication).

When Dunbar began to explore the people, he found that social groups have about 150 people. This means that everyone has about 150 friends, he can ask for help or to give them something.

Close group of 12 people, but 150 social ties - a more significant figure. This is the maximum number of people, with whom we have contact. If the number of your friends It becomes more than 150, some leave from past relationships.

You can put it in another way:

These are people with whom you would not mind a drink at the bar, if you accidentally meet them there.

Writer Rick Lax attempted to challenge the theory of Dunbar. He wrote about trying to do this:

"Trying to challenge the theory of Dunbar, I actually confirmed it. Even if you choose to deny the number of Dunbar and try to expand their circle of friends, you can support interaction with many people, but it is a large number of just 200 people or have even less".

This experience allowed Lax draw attention to the close links:

"I have gained respect after my experiment to:

1. British anthropology.

2. My real friends.

I realized that they are not so much, but now I treat them better and more appreciate them. "

Dunbar's Number is especially useful for marketers and people working in the field of social media and branding. If you know that each person can only communicate with 150 friends and acquaintances, it will be easier to respond to the refusal.

Instead of being angry and upset when people do not want to communicate with you and support your brand, think about the fact that they only have about 150 contacts. If they choose you, they have to give up some of their friends. On the other hand, if people will be used to contact you to appreciate it.

And how social networksWhere many more thousands of friends? But how many of them you have to somehow maintain communication? Most likely, the number of people close to the 150. As soon as there are new contacts, old and forgotten just hang in your friends.

Many periodically clean your list and remove those with whom you will be unable to communicate, leaving only the loved ones. This is not entirely correct. The fact is that It is not only strong bonds, that is, your immediate surroundings. In the book of Morten Hansen "Cooperation" describes how important the human weaknesses of social contacts (in particular, those that infest through social networks). They are the key to new opportunities.

Research has shown that human development is important not so much the number of connections as their diversity. Among your friends should be people who hold opposing points of view, with different experiences and knowledge. And this contingent is quite possible to find in the social network.

Weak links are useful because they put us in an unfamiliar area, whereas there are strong in areas already studied.

Hanlon's razor

This statement of Robert Hanlon, author of the collection of jokes from Pennsylvania, and it sounds like this:

Never attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity.

The razor Hanlon instead of the word "stupid" can deliver "ignorance"That is, lack of information before making a decision or any action. Here's how it works: when you feel that someone treats you badly or do something out of spite, first dig deeper and find out if it is a trivial misunderstanding due.

For example, if you received the email from the person, in which he strongly opposes your idea, perhaps he simply did not understand its essence. And his anger was not directed at you, he only opposed the proposal, which seemed to him foolish or dangerous.

In addition, it often happens that friends are trying to help a person with their methods, but he perceives it as a vile intrigues. People by nature are not evil creatures, so that every imaginary mischief may be hiding the good intentions expressed ridiculous.

Herzberg motivators

The latter theory can help to communicate with their colleagues or even friends and spouses. The concept was launched in 1959 by Frederick Herzberg. Its essence lies in the fact that satisfaction and dissatisfaction from the work are measured in different ways, not being the two ends of a straight line.

In theory, it is assumed that the dissatisfaction depends on hygiene factors: working conditions, salary level, relations with superiors and colleagues. If they are not satisfied, there is dissatisfaction.

But the work did not like because of the good hygienic factors. Satisfaction depends on the group of reasons (motivation), which include: the pleasure of working process, recognition and opportunities for growth.
You can display the following statement: work on paid positions with comfortable conditions, you can still feel lousy if, for example, you do not trust the serious projects and do not notice the effort.

And the fact that you get recognition and realize the benefit of their actions, not refund what you paid for it a penny, forcing to work in awful conditions.

This theory is particularly useful to those who are responsible for personnel in the company. Now you will understand why people, despite the good conditions, it is dismissed.

Those who are dissatisfied with the work itself, this theory can help determine the cause of dissatisfaction and to overcome it. And even if your friends, family or friends will complain about the place of employment, you never tell them: "But you do it so well paid! You get mad with fat, stay. " This step can be very important for their future.