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The co-evolution of cognition and sociality

Luca G. Hahn, Andoni S. E. Sergiou, Josh J. Arbon, Ines Fuertbauer Orcid Logo, Andrew King Orcid Logo, Alex Thornton

Philosophical Transactions B

Swansea University Authors: Ines Fuertbauer Orcid Logo, Andrew King Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.1098/rstb.2024.0110

Abstract

Cognition serves to resolve uncertainty. Living in social groups is widely seen as a source of uncertainty driving cognitive evolution, but sociality can also mitigate sources of uncertainty, reducing the need forcognition. Moreover, social systems are not simply external selection pressures, but ra...

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Published in: Philosophical Transactions B
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URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa68338
first_indexed 2024-11-26T13:51:16Z
last_indexed 2025-01-14T14:38:24Z
id cronfa68338
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spelling 2025-01-14T10:00:32.5759936 v2 68338 2024-11-26 The co-evolution of cognition and sociality f682ec95fa97c4fabb57dc098a9fdaaa 0000-0003-1404-6280 Ines Fuertbauer Ines Fuertbauer true false cc115b4bc4672840f960acc1cb078642 0000-0002-6870-9767 Andrew King Andrew King true false 2024-11-26 BGPS Cognition serves to resolve uncertainty. Living in social groups is widely seen as a source of uncertainty driving cognitive evolution, but sociality can also mitigate sources of uncertainty, reducing the need forcognition. Moreover, social systems are not simply external selection pressures, but rather arise from the decisions individuals make regarding who to interact with and how to behave. Thus, an understanding of how and why cognition evolves requires careful consideration of the co-evolutionary feedback loop between cognition and sociality. Here, we adopt ideas from information theory to evaluate how potential sources of uncertainty differ across species and social systems. Whereas cognitive research often focuses on identifying human-like abilities in other animals, we instead emphasise that animals need to make adaptive decisions to navigate socio-ecological trade-offs. These decisions can be viewed as feedback loops between perceiving and acting on information, which shape individuals’ immediate social interactions, and scale up to generate the structure of societies. Emerging group-level characteristics such as social structure, communication networks, and culture in turn produce the context in which decisions are made and so shape selection on the underlying cognitive processes. Thus, minds shape societies and societies shape minds. Journal Article Philosophical Transactions B 0 0 0 0001-01-01 10.1098/rstb.2024.0110 COLLEGE NANME Biosciences Geography and Physics School COLLEGE CODE BGPS Swansea University L.G.H. was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council-funded South West Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP3: BB/T008741/1). A.T. was supported by a Leverhulme Trust grant (RGP-2020-170). 2025-01-14T10:00:32.5759936 2024-11-26T09:13:41.9518935 Faculty of Science and Engineering School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences Luca G. Hahn 1 Andoni S. E. Sergiou 2 Josh J. Arbon 3 Ines Fuertbauer 0000-0003-1404-6280 4 Andrew King 0000-0002-6870-9767 5 Alex Thornton 6
title The co-evolution of cognition and sociality
spellingShingle The co-evolution of cognition and sociality
Ines Fuertbauer
Andrew King
title_short The co-evolution of cognition and sociality
title_full The co-evolution of cognition and sociality
title_fullStr The co-evolution of cognition and sociality
title_full_unstemmed The co-evolution of cognition and sociality
title_sort The co-evolution of cognition and sociality
author_id_str_mv f682ec95fa97c4fabb57dc098a9fdaaa
cc115b4bc4672840f960acc1cb078642
author_id_fullname_str_mv f682ec95fa97c4fabb57dc098a9fdaaa_***_Ines Fuertbauer
cc115b4bc4672840f960acc1cb078642_***_Andrew King
author Ines Fuertbauer
Andrew King
author2 Luca G. Hahn
Andoni S. E. Sergiou
Josh J. Arbon
Ines Fuertbauer
Andrew King
Alex Thornton
format Journal article
container_title Philosophical Transactions B
institution Swansea University
doi_str_mv 10.1098/rstb.2024.0110
college_str Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofscienceandengineering
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Science and Engineering
department_str School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Science and Engineering{{{_:::_}}}School of Biosciences, Geography and Physics - Biosciences
document_store_str 0
active_str 0
description Cognition serves to resolve uncertainty. Living in social groups is widely seen as a source of uncertainty driving cognitive evolution, but sociality can also mitigate sources of uncertainty, reducing the need forcognition. Moreover, social systems are not simply external selection pressures, but rather arise from the decisions individuals make regarding who to interact with and how to behave. Thus, an understanding of how and why cognition evolves requires careful consideration of the co-evolutionary feedback loop between cognition and sociality. Here, we adopt ideas from information theory to evaluate how potential sources of uncertainty differ across species and social systems. Whereas cognitive research often focuses on identifying human-like abilities in other animals, we instead emphasise that animals need to make adaptive decisions to navigate socio-ecological trade-offs. These decisions can be viewed as feedback loops between perceiving and acting on information, which shape individuals’ immediate social interactions, and scale up to generate the structure of societies. Emerging group-level characteristics such as social structure, communication networks, and culture in turn produce the context in which decisions are made and so shape selection on the underlying cognitive processes. Thus, minds shape societies and societies shape minds.
published_date 0001-01-01T14:38:36Z
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score 11.048042

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