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

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

doi:10.1098/rstb.2020.0533

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

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

Authors

Louise Barrett

S. Peter Henzi

Professor Robert Barton r.a.barton@durham.ac.uk
Professor

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