The online world comes with risks – but also friendships and independence for young people with disabilities: Kleber Cordeiro/Shutterstock “In the real world, I’m a coward. When I’m online, I’m a hero.” These words, paraphrased from a conversation with a young man with autism, have stayed with us throughout the years of research that underpin …
The pandemic limited children’s ability to socialise: here’s how to encourage your child’s friendships: Robert Kneschke/Shutterstock As many parents and teachers know, friendships can be the most important thing in the world to children and young people. And this is for good reason. Friendships are integral to children’s healthy development and learning. Friendships help children …
Baboon bonds: new study reveals that friendships make up for a bad start in life: Two juvenile baboons passively share information about a food source when one sniffs the other’s muzzle while feeding. Susan C. Alberts Childhoods can predict a great deal about how adult lives might play out. For instance, research has shown that …
‘He is always there to listen’: friendships between young men are more than just beers and banter: Matheus Ferrero/Unsplash Male friendships are often presented in the media and popular culture as relatively superficial, competitive and lacking in emotional depth. With this in mind, it’s not entirely surprising that some people seem to think men have …
Animal friendships are surprisingly like our own: slowmotiongli/Shutterstock When you think of friendship, what comes to mind? Is it a phone conversation that lasts late into the night? Watching a movie and sharing a pizza? Enjoying some laughs over a beer? Friendship is a central part of the human experience. Our stories, our songs and …
Why we dispute ‘Dunbar’s number’ – the claim humans can only maintain 150 friendships: Photobank gallery/Shutterstock Many of us are aware of the claim that humans can maintain no more than 150 friendships. That figure is called “Dunbar’s number” after the evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar, who first introduced the idea three decades ago. Dunbar claimed …
Dunbar’s number: why my theory that humans can only maintain 150 friendships has withstood 30 years of scrutiny: Wisiel/Shutterstock Exactly 30 years ago, I was pondering a graph of primate group sizes plotted against the size of their brains: the larger the brain, the larger the group size. I was curious to know what group …
South Africa in the news: The not so black and white issue of navigating my childhood friendships: See, my white friends live in a world full of hope – they put up missing posters and expect their dogs to be found and brought back. I wonder what having that hope is like.’ …: “South Africa” …