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The social brain hypothesis†
Robin I. M. Dunbar,
Robin I. M. Dunbar
Search for more papers by this authorRobin I. M. Dunbar,
Robin I. M. Dunbar
Search for more papers by this authorFirst published: 07 December 1998
Citations: 1,625
†
Robin Dunbar is Professor of Evolutionary Psychology and Behavioural Ecology at the University of Liverpool, England. His research primarily focuses on the behavioral ecology of ungulates and human and nonhuman primates, and on the cognitive mechanisms and brain components that underpin the decisions that animals make. He runs a large research group, with graduate students working on many different species on four continents.
Abstract
Conventional wisdom over the past 160 years in the cognitive and neurosciences has assumed that brains evolved to process factual information about the world. Most attention has therefore been focused on such features as pattern recognition, color vision, and speech perception. By extension, it was assumed that brains evolved to deal with essentially ecological problem-solving tasks. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc.
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