Machiavellian Intelligence: Social Expertise and the Evolution of Intellect in Monkeys, Apes »

University of St. Andrews

This book presents an alternative to conventional ideas about the evolution of the human intellect. Instead of placing top priority on the role of tools, the pressure for their skillful use, and the related importance of interpersonal communication as a means for enhanced cooperation, this volume explores quite a different idea— that the driving force in the evolution of human intellect was social expertise—a force which enabled the manipulation of others within the social group, who themselves are seen as posing the most challenging problems faced by primitive humans. The need to outwit one's clever colleagues then produces an evolutionary spiraling of "Machiavellian intelligence." The book forms a complete and self-contained text on this fast-growing topic. It includes the origins of the basic premise and a wealth of exciting developments, described by an international team of authors from the fields of anthropology, psychology, and zoology. An evaluation of more traditional approaches is also undertaken, with a view to discovering to what extent Machiavellian intelligence represents a complementary concept or one that is truly an alternative. Readers and students will find this fascinating volume carries them to the frontiers of scientific work on the origin of human intellect.

1. Editorial: The Machiavellian Intelligence Hypotheses, Andrew Whiten and Richard Byrne
PART I: The Origin of the Idea
2. The Social Function of Intellect, Nicholas Humphrey
3. Lemur Social Behaviour and Primate Intelligence, Alison Jolly
4. Social Behaviour and Primate Evolution, Michael Chance and Allan Mead
5. Taking (Machiavellian) Intelligence Apart, Andrew Whiten and Richard Byrne
PART II: What Primates Know About Social Relationships
6. Do Monkeys Understand Their Relationships? Robert Seyfarth and Dorothy Cheney
7. Mapping Social Concepts in Monkeys, Verena Dasser
8. The Cognitive
Demands of Children's Social Interactions with Peers Peter Smith
PART III: Social Complexity: The Effect of a Third Party
9. Tripartite Relations in Hamadryas Baboons, Hans Drummer
10. Chimpanzee Politics, Frans de Waal
11. Alliances in Contests and Social Intelligence, Alexander Harcourt
PART IV: Are Primates Mind-Readers?
12. A Group of Young Chimpanzees in a One-Acre Field: Leadership and Communication, Emil Menzel
13. "Does the Chimpanzee Have a Theory of Mind" Revisited, David Premack
PART V: Deception
15. Tactical Deception of Familiar Individuals in Baboons, Richard Byrne and Andrew Whiten
16. The Manipulation of Attention in Primate Tactical Deception, Andrew Whiten and Richard Byrne
17. Deception and Social Manipulation in Symbol-Using Apes, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Kelly McDonald
18. The Ontogency of Tactical Deception in Humans, Peter LaFreniere
PART VI: Social or Non-Social Origins of Intelligence?
19. Social and Non-Social Knowledge in Vervet Monkeys, Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth
20. Tools and the Evolution of Human Intelligence, Thomas Wynn
21. Foraging Behaviour and the Evolution of Primate Cognition, Katharine Milton
PART VII: Exploiting the Expertise of Others
22. An Experimental Study of Social Knowledge, Eduard Stammbach
23. Invention and Social Transmission, Marc Hauser
PART VIII: Taking Stock
24. The Experimental Context of Intellect, John Crook
25. The Evolution of Purpose, Alison Jolly