Social cognition and theory of mind

Different species face several social problems that need to be solved in their everyday life. The social intelligence hypothesis states that complex cognition evolved to deal with challenges in the social world. Human have a so-called 'theory of mind'; and so make inferences about others' mental states. Interest in the question of what animals understand about others has increased with regard to the evolution of 'theory of mind'. In recent years, evidence has cumulated that different species show a flexible understanding about others' current and past visual perception. This could be evidence that animals, like humans, understand some mental states.