The hypothesis of social intelligence
Intelligence and cognitive abilities in general are deeply studied elements throughout the history of psychology, being something that has fascinated the human being since ancient times. Solving problems, knowing how to adapt to the environment and generating strategies and acting efficiently allow both the human being and other species to survive and cope with environmental demands.
Traditionally, intelligence has been considered something inherited, largely derived from genetics and in part from our development throughout pregnancy and childhood. But it is not until relatively recently that we have not begun to talk about intelligence as something that has appeared thanks to socialization. This is what the hypothesis of social intelligence or the social brain proposes .
- Related article: "The theories of human intelligence"
This is the hypothesis of social intelligence
The hypothesis of social intelligence, developed and defended by Humphrey, proposes that intelligence and cognitive development is promoted by the fact of having to manage social relations increasingly complex. This hypothesis arose from the observation made by the author of the behavior of captive primates in their day to day, reaching the conclusion that their social dynamics explained and promoted part of their cognitive development. We are not talking about the concept of social intelligence in itself but the emergence of intelligence as a social thing.
This hypothesis part of evolutionary psychology , and hints that in fact the development of the cognitive capacities of the human species is due at least in part to the need to interact and communicate, to need coordination to hunt and defend against predators, or to prepare tools with these objectives. Also the establishment of hierarchies and relations of power and submission, the behavior or expected role of each member or the learning of techniques and strategies became increasingly complex.
This theory leads to reflect on how the human being has evolved and developed over the generations an intelligence much more based on communication and social interaction, developing increasingly complex and much more demanding societies (we go from small family tribes to villages, cities, kingdoms, empires or civilizations) that demand an increasing flexibility and cognitive capacity to manage them. It requires a certain level of abstraction , that little by little was promoted and developed by having greater reproductive success who owned or learned.
- You may be interested: "What is abstract reasoning and how to train it?"
The social brain
The hypothesis of social intelligence has found some evidence in favor of biology. The most obvious example is that of Robin Dunbar , who collected, developed and deepened Humphrey's hypothesis.
Throughout his research, this author reflected the existence of a correlation between social group size of membership and encephalization ratio, possessing a greater volume (and possibly density and connectivity) brain those animals with greater quantity and quality of relationships. This increase in volume is visible in the neocortex. But nevertheless, The number of relationships that we can manage at the same time is limited : that is why, it is proposed in his theory, that as social demand increases little by little, our species has developed a higher level of neural connections and abstraction capacities.
This has allowed us to survive. And it is that the human being lacks great elements that allow us to survive by ourselves: we are not particularly fast, nor our senses are excessively superior to those of other animals, nor do we possess horns, claws or a dentition that allow us a defense or ability hunting. We also do not have a force or size comparable to those of possible predators. Evolutively, then, We have depended on our number and ability to manage socially to survive , and later of our cognitive capacity (developed to a great extent by our relational capacity).
Some evidence in the animal world
Evidence in favor of this hypothesis is different, largely from the observation of animal behavior and the performance of comparative studies and behavioral experiments with different animal species.
Recently The study and comparative analysis of the behavior of some animals has come to light : specifically with the Australian magpies. Different magpies were made to face a series of behavioral tests in which they must basically solve certain puzzles (observing the ability to solve problems) to get food.The experiments have been carried out with magpies of different ages and belonging to different flocks, being each of the four puzzles prepared in the tests dedicated to evaluate a specific skill (learning response-reward association and spatial memory between them) and manifesting itself that the performance of the animal was better the greater the flock they belonged to, as well as among the magpies that had been bred in these flocks since birth.
Thus, it is proposed that living in large groups is linked and promotes greater cognitive performance, which in turn facilitates survival. In conclusion, those birds that live in large flocks tend to have a higher performance in different tests proposed by researchers. These same conclusions have been reflected in studies carried out with ravens, dolphins and different primate species.
In addition to the evidence found in animals, it is useful to think about our own development: the front of the brain is one of the largest and of those that take longer to develop, and is deeply linked to the control of behavior and the management of social behavior (especially the prefrontal region). We must also highlight that the discovery of mirror neurons by Rizzolatti as an element that allows us to understand and put ourselves in the place of others is linked to this fact: by living in society, our behavior and relationship management makes more adaptive the evolution of structures linked to grasping what our peers feel or refer to. And this makes us, as a social species that we are, more adaptive.
Bibliographic references
- Ashton, B.J .; Ridley, A.R .; Edwards, E.K .; Thornton, A. (2018). Cognitive performance is linked to group size and affects fitness in Australian magpies. Nature [Online version]. Macmillan Publishers Limited. Available at: //www.nature.com/articles/nature25503
- Fox, K.C. R., Muthukrishna, M. & Shultz, S. (2017). The social and cultural roots of whale and dolphin brains. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 1, 1699-1705
- Humphrey, N. (1998). Cave art, autism, and the evolution of the human mind. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, 8 (2), 165-191.
- Humphrey, N. (2002). The mind made flesh. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Morand-Ferron, J. (2017). Why learn? The adaptive value of associative learning in wild populations. Curr. Opin. Behav. Sci. 16, 73-79
- Street, S. E., Navarrete, A. F., Reader, S. M. & Laland, K. N. (2017). Coevolution of cultural intelligence, extended life history, sociality, and brain size in primates. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 114, 7908-7914.
