The DOI matches its Crossref record; 58 of the 58 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
EVIDENCE FOR COEVOLUTION OF SOCIALITY AND RELATIVE BRAIN SIZE IN THREE ORDERS OF MAMMALS
Abstract
As the brain is responsible for managing an individual's behavioral response to its environment, we should expect that large relative brain size is an evolutionary response to cognitively challenging behaviors. The "social brain hypothesis" argues that maintaining group cohesion is cognitively demanding as individuals living in groups need to be able to resolve conflicts that impact on their ability to meet resource requirements. If sociality does impose cognitive demands, we expect changes in relative brain size and sociality to be coupled over evolutionary time. In this study, we analyze data on sociality and relative brain size for 206 species of ungulates, carnivores, and primates and provide, for the first time, evidence that changes in sociality and relative brain size are closely correlated over evolutionary time for all three mammalian orders. This suggests a process of coevolution and provides support for the social brain theory. However, differences between taxonomic orders in the stability of the transition between small-brained/nonsocial and large-brained/social imply that, although sociality is cognitively demanding, sociality and relative brain size can become decoupled in some cases. Carnivores seem to have been especially prone to this.
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“the high degree of encephalization reached by the neocortex of social mammals, especially by Homo sapiens, may be a direct consequence of the cognitive demands required for the stable management of complex relationships that occur within social groups”
From Internet use and access, behavior, cyberbullying, and grooming: Results of an investigative whole city survey of adolescents (2017) · cites this paper as [40]
In the citing paper
“Dunbar has come to identify an approximate number of 150 friends or social relationships that the individual human subject is actually able to maintain”
From Internet use and access, behavior, cyberbullying, and grooming: Results of an investigative whole city survey of adolescents (2017) · cites this paper as [40]
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“…between social group size and neocortex volume in primates, otherwise known as the social brain hypothesis (Dunbar, 1998; Dunbar and Shultz, 2007; Pérez-Barbería et al., 2007; Shultz and Dunbar, 2007, 2010), implies that the social cognitive skills underpinning this relationship must have some…”
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Metadata
- Authors
- Pérez-Barbería, F. J., Shultz, S., & Dunbar, R. I. M.
- Affiliations
- University of Liverpool (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Pérez-Barbería, F. Javier
- Shultz, Susanne
- Dunbar, Robin I. M.
- Venue
- Evolution
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Published
- 2007-12
- Volume
- 61
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 2811-2821
- ISSN
- 0014-3820 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-5646
- OpenAlex
- W2105254791
- Cited by
- 241
- References
- 58
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 27 · 2020: 12 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 17 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 11 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 18
- FWCI
- 16.05
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Evolution (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- BioOne Complete (BioOne) (submittedVersion)
- Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- British Academy
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Keywords
- social brain hypothesis, sociality, relative brain size, coevolution, ungulates, carnivores, primates, group cohesion, cognitive demand, brain evolution, evolution of social behavior
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Behavior, Animal, Brain, Carnivora, Mammals, Organ Size, Phylogeny, Primates, Social Behavior
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