IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v11y2020i1d10.1038_s41467-020-18780-3.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Interactions with conspecific outsiders as drivers of cognitive evolution

Author

Listed:
  • Benjamin J. Ashton

    (University of Bristol
    Macquarie University)

  • Patrick Kennedy

    (University of Bristol)

  • Andrew N. Radford

    (University of Bristol)

Abstract

The social intelligence hypothesis (SIH) posits that within-group interactions drive cognitive evolution, but it has received equivocal support. We argue the SIH overlooks a major component of social life: interactions with conspecific outsiders. Competition for vital resources means conspecific outsiders present myriad threats and opportunities in all animal taxa across the social spectrum (from individuals to groups). We detail cognitive challenges generated by conspecific outsiders, arguing these select for ‘Napoleonic’ intelligence; explain potential influences on the SIH; and highlight important considerations when empirically testing these ideas. Including interactions with conspecific outsiders may substantially improve our understanding of cognitive evolution.

Suggested Citation

  • Benjamin J. Ashton & Patrick Kennedy & Andrew N. Radford, 2020. "Interactions with conspecific outsiders as drivers of cognitive evolution," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-9, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-18780-3
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18780-3
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18780-3
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-020-18780-3?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lan Pang & Zhiguo Liu & Jiani Chen & Zhi Dong & Sicong Zhou & Qichao Zhang & Yueqi Lu & Yifeng Sheng & Xuexin Chen & Jianhua Huang, 2022. "Search performance and octopamine neuronal signaling mediate parasitoid induced changes in Drosophila oviposition behavior," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-18, December.
    2. Peñaherrera-Aguirre, Mateo & Sarraf, Matthew A. & Woodley of Menie, Michael A. & Miller, Geoffrey F., 2023. "The ten-million-year explosion: Paleocognitive reconstructions of domain-general cognitive ability (G) in extinct primates," Intelligence, Elsevier, vol. 101(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-18780-3. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.