14 research outputs found
Facialmetric similarities mediate mate choice: sexual imprinting on opposite-sex parents
A retraction has been publishe
The evolution of animal âculturesâ and social intelligence
Decades-long field research has flowered into integrative studies that, together with experimental evidence for the requisite social learning capacities, have indicated a reliance on multiple traditions (âculturesâ) in a small number of species. It is increasingly evident that there is great variation in manifestations of social learning, tradition and culture among species, offering much scope for evolutionary analysis. Social learning has been identified in a range of vertebrate and invertebrate species, yet sustained traditions appear rarer, and the multiple traditions we call cultures are rarer still. Here, we examine relationships between this variation and both social intelligenceâsophisticated information processing adapted to the social domainâand encephalization. First, we consider whether culture offers one particular confirmation of the social (âMachiavellianâ) intelligence hypothesis that certain kinds of social life (here, culture) select for intelligence: âyou need to be smart to sustain cultureâ. Phylogenetic comparisons, particularly focusing on our own study animals, the great apes, support this, but we also highlight some paradoxes in a broader taxonomic survey. Second, we use intraspecific variation to address the converse hypothesis that âculture makes you smartâ, concluding that recent evidence for both chimpanzees and orang-utans support this proposition