Work

Extraordinary intelligence and the care of infants

Year: 2016

Type: article

Abstract: We present evidence that pressures for early childcare may have been one of the driving factors of human evolution. We show through an evolutionary model that runaway selection for high intelligence may occur when (i) altricial neonates require intelligent parents, (ii) intelligent parents must have large brains, and (iii) large brains necessitate having even more altricial offspring. We test a prediction of this account by showing across primate genera that the helplessness of infants is a particularly strong predictor of the adults' intelligence. We discuss related implications, including this account's ability to explain why human-level intelligence evolved specifically in mammals. This theory complements prior hypotheses that link human intelligence to social reasoning and reproductive pressures and explains how human intelligence may have become so distinctive compared with our closest evolutionary relatives.

Source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1506752113

Authors: Steven T. Piantadosi, Celeste Kidd

Institution: University of Rochester

Language: English

Topic: Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior

Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology

Field: Psychology

Domain: Social Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Award: Building cognitive representations in infants and children