A spectrum of complexity uncovers Dunbar's number and other leaps in social structure

TL;DR

This paper introduces the social complexity spectrum, a new empirical tool to analyze how societal complexity varies with population size and structure, revealing key scales and shifts in social organization.

Contribution

It presents the social complexity spectrum as a novel methodological approach to empirically study social structure dynamics across different population sizes.

Findings

Societal complexity increases monotonously with population size.

Specific scales show faster complexity buildup, indicated by dips in the spectrum.

Urbanization causes red- and blue-shifts, affecting social complexity patterns.

Abstract

Social dynamics are shaped by each person's actions, as well as by collective trends that emerge when individuals are brought together. These latter kind of influences escape anyone's control. They are, instead, dominated by aggregate societal properties such as size, polarization, cohesion, or hierarchy. Such features add nuance and complexity to social structure, and might be present, or not, for societies of different sizes. How do societies become more complex? Are there specific scales at which they are reorganized into emergent entities? In this paper we introduce the {\em social complexity spectrum}, a methodological tool, inspired by theoretical considerations about dynamics on complex networks, that addresses these questions empirically. We use as a probe a sociolinguistic process that has unfolded over decades within the north-western Spanish region of Galicia, across populations of varied sizes. We estimate how societal complexity increases monotonously with population size; and how specific scales stand out, at which complexity would build up faster. These scales are noted as dips in our spectra, similarly to missing wavelengths in light spectroscopy. Also, `red-' and `blue-shifts' take place as the general population shifted from more rural to more urban settings. These shifts help us sharpen our observations. Besides specific results around social complexity build-up, our work introduces a powerful tool to be applied in further study cases.