The social evolution of intellect

Abstract

The high levels of intelligence seen in humans, other primates, certain cetaceans and birds remain a major puzzle for evolutionary biologists, anthropologists and psychologists. In recent times two main explanatory frameworks have emerged: the 'social intelligence' and 'cultural intelligence' hypotheses. Both theories emphasise different advantages of intelligence: the ability to negotiate a complex social environment for the social intelligence hypothesis; and the ability to easily acquire novel behaviours from others for the cultural intelligence hypothesis.