Topic 14: The Social Animal Flashcards
What is Dunbar’s social brain hypothesis?
More social information leads to larger capacity in specific brain areas.
Dunbar focused on the neocortex
If we quantify social information, we can see if the amount of social information is associated with neocortex size across species.
What does it mean to say our minds are specialised for sociality?
- we form long term bonds
- remember details of hundreds of individuals
- learn quickly from others
- cooperate with strangers over extended periods
Why are humans so social?
Offers evolutionary advantages such as:
- avoiding predation
- coordinating defence against threats
- hunting, gathering, child rearing in groups
- passing on knowledge
What are the problems with sociality?
- physical proximity to others makes it easier for pathogens to be transmitted
- direct harm through aggression, exploitation
- human groups have status hierarchies - entails power struggles that can be physically risky e.g. wars.
How do we quantify social information?
According to Dunbar:
Look at species’ group size - the larger the group, the more social information there is to deal with
What is Dunbar’s number?
150
This is his guess of human’s ‘natural’ group size based on neocortex ratio and the cross species trend in the ape lineage.
According to Dunbar, what influenced the evolution of the human brain?
Group size
How do you find the neocortex ratio?
It is the neocortex volume divided by the volume of the rest of the brain.
What is the neocortex ratio between monkeys and apes? - shown on a graph
There is a strong correlation between neocortex ratio and mean group size.
- group size and amount of social information that each species deals with seems to be uniquely predictive of this aspect of brain anatomy
What do we need to do to place humans on the monkey/ape graph?
Still need to know the mean group size and neocortex ratio
- but modern humans do not have a set group size. e.g. some live in cities, others small towns.
According to Dunbar, since we know the neocortex ratio of humans, how can we then estimate the natural group size?
We have to base it on the cross species trend.
This is there may have been a natural group size that humans had before cultural evolution that made it possible for humans to live in larger and larger groups.
His guess was 150 people. - we can mentally handle 150 people.
What are imagined realities?
Only exist because humans made it up.
E.g. money, Bsc degree, brands e.g. Starbucks, nation state e.g. UK.
What are examples of how imagined realities can change?
- when a bank issues new notes, old ones become worthless
- national borders can change if people agree to change them
- where exactly in physical space is brand, ‘starbucks’ located?
What are examples that imagined realities enable large scale cooperation?
- complete strangers form militaries and fight for the same ‘country’
- employers assume you have certain set of skills based on your ‘degree’ and can hire large numbers of people without getting to know them personally.
What factors set humans apart from other animals?
- our social brain
- our ability to create imagined realities
What is the social brain hypothesis?
Human mind is specialised for processing social information in particular.
What is a key area of social perception?
Emotions/Emotional expressions
What are emotional expressions?
Nonverbal communication where people decipher the behaviour.
We communicate emotions especially on the face through expressions.
Until the 1970s what was the general belief about emotions and expressions?
Believed that emotions and expressions are culturally constructed.
What is Ekman’s belief on emotions?
That humans are endowed with basic emotions and facial expressions.
Therefore, emotions and expressions are universal rather than cultural.
He investigated people in New Guinea to test for this.
What are Ekman’s 6 basic emotions?
Anger
Fear
Disgust
Surprise
Joy/Happiness
Sadness
- mapped out their facial expressions
What is the general trend/research about identifying emotions?
People can identify emotions expressed by individuals from other cultures.
But, accuracy is higher when the individuals displaying and identifying the expressions are from the same culture.
How have Ekman’s views been challenged?
- In real life, how often do we display these expressions?
- The images depict actors holding stereotyped expressions, not spontaneous displays.
- Didn’t take into account movement, rest of body, broader context.
What is attribution?
How we intuitively explain behaviours
