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Cooperative Breeding and Human Cognitive Evolution

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Burkart, J. M., Hrdy, S. B., Van Schaik, C. P.·2009·Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews
DOI 10.1002/evan.20222
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Abstract

Despite sharing a recent common ancestor, humans are surprisingly different from other great apes. The most obvious discontinuities are related to our cognitive abilities, including language, but we also have a markedly different, cooperative breeding system. Among many nonhuman primates and mammals in general, cooperative breeding is accompanied by psychological changes leading to greater prosociality, which directly enhances performance in social cognition. Here we propose that these cognitive consequences of cooperative breeding could have become more pervasive in the human lineage because the psychological changes were added to an ape‐level cognitive system capable of understanding simple mental states, albeit mainly in competitive contexts. Once more prosocial motivations were added, these cognitive abilities could also be used for cooperative purposes, including a willingness to share mental states, thereby enabling the emergence of shared intentionality. Shared intentionality has been identified as the original source of many uniquely human cognitive abilities, including cumulative culture and language. Shared intentionality rests on a fundamentally prosocial disposition that is strikingly absent in chimpanzees, but present in cooperatively breeding primates. Thus, our hypothesis is that while chimpanzees and perhaps all great apes exhibit many of the important cognitive preconditions for uniquely human mental capacities to evolve, they lack the psychological preconditions. In humans, we argue, the two components merged, the cognitive component due to common descent from ape ancestors and the motivational component due to convergent evolution of traits typical of many cooperative breeders.

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Crossref · 10.1002/evan.20222

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149 of 149 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

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  • Over the course of human evolution, a large social brain emerged, with distinctive capacities from those of chimpanzees, accompanied by intense child raising.

    “Over the course of human evolution, a large social brain emerged, with distinctive capacities from those of chimpanzees, accompanied by intense child raising (Burkart et al., 2009; Hrdy, 2009a).”

    From The evolved nest, oxytocin functioning, and prosocial development (2023) · cites this paper as Burkart et al., 2009

  • Humanity's heritage of raising children together is associated with psychological changes that enhance social relations such as mind reading and shared intentionality.

    “Humanity’s heritage of raising children together is associated with psychological changes that enhance social relations such as mind reading and shared intentionality (Burkart et al., 2009).”

    From The evolved nest, oxytocin functioning, and prosocial development (2023) · cites this paper as Burkart et al. (2009)

  • The empathic experience of encounter with nature is elementary for the development of a care relationship and may be the driver of future engagement for further restoration projects.

    “The empathic experience of this encounter is elementary for the development of a “care” relationship and may be the driver of future engagement for further restoration projects [190,191].”

    From Urban Stream and Wetland Restoration in the Global South—A DPSIR Analysis (2019) · cites this paper as [190]

  • The argument is that cooperative breeding was a feature of the genus Homo from H. erectus onward, close to 2 million years ago.

    “First, the argument made by Hrdy (2009), Burkart et al. (2009), and Burkart and van Schaik (2016) is that cooperative breeding was a feature of the genus Homo from H. erectus onward, close to 2 million years ago.”

    From Hypotheses for the Evolution of Reduced Reactive Aggression in the Context of Human Self-Domestication (2019) · cites this paper as Burkart et al., 2009

  • Cooperative breeding became an important feature of early Homo society and selected for increased social tolerance.

    “Burkart et al. (2009), Hrdy (2009), and Burkart and van Schaik (2016) proposed that cooperative breeding, a social system in which individuals help rear others’ offspring at a cost to their own reproductive effort, became an important feature of early Homo society and selected for increased social tolerance.”

    From Hypotheses for the Evolution of Reduced Reactive Aggression in the Context of Human Self-Domestication (2019) · cites this paper as Burkart et al., 2009

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Authors
Burkart, J. M., Hrdy, S. B., & Van Schaik, C. P.
Affiliations
  • University of Zurich (CH)
  • University of California, Davis (US)
Corresponding author
Burkart, J. M.
ORCID
Venue
Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2009-09
Volume
18
Issue
5
Pages
175-186
ISSN
  • 1060-1538 (ISSN-L)
  • 1520-6505
DOI
10.1002/evan.20222
OpenAlex
W2019887455
Cited by
646
References
151
Citations by year
2026: 40 · 2025: 44 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 32 · 2022: 65 · 2021: 46 · 2020: 47 · 2019: 59 · 2018: 41 · 2017: 38 · 2016: 38 · 2015: 43 · 2014: 31 · 2013: 36 · 2012: 32
FWCI
25.24
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor, 55 d)
Locations
  • Evolutionary Anthropology Issues News and Reviews (publishedVersion)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (acceptedVersion)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion)
  • Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
  • Social Sciences › Cultural Studies › Language and cultural evolution
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
Keywords
cooperative breeding, human cognitive evolution, prosocial behavior, shared intentionality, social cognition, language evolution, cumulative culture, chimpanzees, great apes, convergent evolution, theory of mind

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