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Experts in action: why we need an embodied social brain hypothesis

Barrett, Louise; Henzi, S. Peter; Barton, Robert A.

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Authors

Louise Barrett

S. Peter Henzi



Abstract

The anthropoid primates are known for their intense sociality and large brain size. The idea that these might be causally related has given rise to a large body of work testing the ‘social brain hypothesis'. Here, the emphasis has been placed on the political demands of social life, and the cognitive skills that would enable animals to track the machinations of other minds in metarepresentational ways. It seems to us that this position risks losing touch with the fact that brains primarily evolved to enable the control of action, which in turn leads us to downplay or neglect the importance of the physical body in a material world full of bodies and other objects. As an alternative, we offer a view of primate brain and social evolution that is grounded in the body and action, rather than minds and metarepresentation.

Citation

Barrett, L., Henzi, S. P., & Barton, R. A. (2022). Experts in action: why we need an embodied social brain hypothesis. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 377(1844), https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0533

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Nov 11, 2021
Online Publication Date Dec 27, 2021
Publication Date Feb 14, 2022
Deposit Date Jan 13, 2022
Publicly Available Date Jan 14, 2022
Journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
Print ISSN 0962-8436
Electronic ISSN 1471-2970
Publisher The Royal Society
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 377
Issue 1844
DOI https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0533
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1220094

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