Questioning the social intelligence hypothesis

• Published in: Trends in cognitive sciences Vol. 11; no. 2; pp. 65 - 69
• Main Author: Holekamp, Kay E
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2007; Elsevier
• Subjects: Animals; Behavior, Animal - physiology; Biological and medical sciences; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Intelligence - physiology; Models, Psychological; Neurology; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Social attribution, perception and cognition; Social Behavior; Social psychology; Human; Fissipedia; Carnivora; Intelligence; Cognitive ability; Cognition; Review; Crocuta crocuta; Social cognition; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Animal; Aves
• ISSN: 1364-6613; 1879-307X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2006.11.003

The social intelligence hypothesis posits that complex cognition and enlarged ‘executive brains’ evolved in response to challenges that are associated with social complexity. This hypothesis has been well supported, but some recent data are inconsistent with its predictions. It is becoming increasingly clear that multiple selective agents, and non-selective constraints, must have acted to shape cognitive abilities in humans and other animals. The task now is to develop a larger theoretical framework that takes into account both inter-specific differences and similarities in cognition. This new framework should facilitate consideration of how selection pressures that are associated with sociality interact with those that are imposed by non-social forms of environmental complexity, and how both types of functional demands interact with phylogenetic and developmental constraints.