Social brain hypothesis

Social brain hypothesis

1. Assertains that the most challenging area is not the ecological but the social

   • Complexity of social lives accounts for large brains to cope with info processing and ability to manip that info
     • sbh is an ecological theory that states ecological problems like foraging, offspring rearing, better solved socially than individ
       • always about the complexity and quality not the quantity
         • neocortical size correlates with sociallty in primates - nocortical size and group size
           • sociality response to ecological problems ; size and structure represents a balance between predation risk and competition = selection pressure to evolve strategies and tactics to negate -ve impacts competition would have on repro success
             • supports sbh - proposed strategies involve coalitions and alliances allowing indivs to band together and prevent resource monopoly
               • linked to carnivores and cetaceans

2. computational power needed to track own and 3rd party relationships

   • deception rate and neocortex
     • consistent that social challenges driven neocortical size
       • correlates with group size, grooming clique size (alliance), strategies used by males in mating, social manip
         • cognitive demand lone animals lower than stable social groups

3. consequences

   • late sexual maturity
     • small litter size
       • long interbirth intevals
         • extended lifespan
           • late weaning
             • Juvenille period extended for knowledge aquistion, reconciliation how to perform benefical affiliations fighting and sexual skills learn to coop