Abstract
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.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior |
Editors | M. Breed, J. Moore |
Place of Publication | London |
Publisher | Academic Press Inc. |
Pages | 226-230 |
Number of pages | 5 |
ISBN (Print) | 9780080453330 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2009 |
Keywords
- Competition
- Corvids
- Gaze following
- Group living
- Mental state attribution
- Perspective taking
- Primates
- Social cognition
- Social intelligence
- Theory of mind