Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis

In primatology, the Machiavellian intelligence or social brain hypothesis describes the capacity of primates to manuever in complex social groups. The first introduction of this concept came from Frans de Waal's book Chimpanzee Politics (1982). In the book de Waal notes that chimpanzees performed certain social maneuvering behaviors that he thought of as being "Machiavellian".

This hypothesis posits that large brains and distinctive cognitive abilities of primates have evolved via intense social competition in which social competitors developed increasingly sophisticated strategies as a means to achieve higher social and reproductive success.

Overview

Origin of the term

The term "Machiavellian intelligence" originates from the primatologist Franz de Waal, who noted that the behaviors of primates was so elaborate that it could perhaps be compared to political behavior today.

Primatologists Nicholas Humphrey, Andrew Whiten and Richard Byrne were instrumental in developing this theory. They observed that primates, particularly great apes, displayed intricate social behaviors such as alliance formation, deception, and reconciliation. These behaviors seemed to require cognitive abilities beyond what was necessary for basic survival tasks like foraging or avoiding predators.

Relations with other research

As a concept, it is also conflated with, and mistaken for the Machiavellianism personality construct, which focuses on the affective-interpersonal traits of human beings, such as unemotionality and exploitativeness, while Machiavellian Intelligence deals with the social behaviors of primates and is not focused on immoral actions.

Behaviors of organisms

Machiavellian intelligence may be demonstrated by primate behaviors including:

Mate seeking
Acts of reciprocity and aggression
Complex group manuevers, such as co-operation and competition
Acts of misdirection by the primate

Criticisms

Food and nutrient factors

The claim that large brains are linked to large social groups in primates and cetaceans, on which the Machiavellian intelligence hypothesis is based, is criticized by a number of researchers for overlooking the availability of food as a common limiting factor for brain size and social group size. Among primates as well as cetaceans, there are some opportunistic species that eat most types of food and other species that are specialised in particular types of food, as well as differences in the overall availability of food between different geographical regions in which the animals live. Some critics of Machiavellian intelligence argue that species that have to keep their use of nutrients down due to food poverty or specialisation in a rare type of food lowers average brain size for species that live in smaller groups, making big brains falsely appear to be linked to large groups due to the common causes of opportunistic foraging for nutritious food and a rich supply of food. These critics also cite that the "exceptions" in the form of small-brained primates in very large groups typically eat abundant but nutrient-poor foods (such as geladas that eat grass), as predicted by the food-based model, and argue that the higher individual need for nutrients put on by large brains causes groups to become smaller if the species have the same degree of digestive specialisation and environmental availability of food.

References

Byrne, Richard W.; Whiten, Andrew (1990). "Machiavellian Intelligence: Social Expertise and the Evolution of Intellect in Monkeys, Apes, and Humans". Behavior and Philosophy. 18 (1): 73–75.
Gavrilets, Sergey; Vose, Aaron (2006-11-07). "The dynamics of Machiavellian intelligence". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103 (45): 16823–16828. arXiv:q-bio/0610002. Bibcode:2006PNAS..10316823G. doi:10.1073/pnas.0601428103. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 1636539. PMID 17075072.
Waal, Frans de; Waal, Frans B. M. (2007-09-30). Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes. JHU Press. ISBN 9780801886560.
Vose, Aaron; Gavrilets, Sergey (2006-11-07). "The dynamics of Machiavellian intelligence". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103 (45): 16823–16828. arXiv:q-bio/0610002. Bibcode:2006PNAS..10316823G. doi:10.1073/pnas.0601428103. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 1636539. PMID 17075072.
Chimpanzee Politics, pg 4
Humphrey, N. The social function of the intellect
Whiten, A., & Byrne, R. W. (Eds.). (1997). Machiavellian intelligence II: Extensions and evaluations (Vol. 2). Cambridge University Press.
"MI should therefore not be conflated – though it sometimes has been – with the human personality trait of “Machiavellianism” (Christie and Geis 1970) which refers specifically to an ability to detach from conventional morality and emotionality in order better to deceive and manipulate other people. MI is not about morality, and not restricted to “nasty” actions."
Byrne, R.W. (2022). Machiavellian Intelligence. In: Vonk, J., Shackelford, T.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55065-7_781
Whiten, Andrew; Byrne, Richard W. (1997-09-25). Machiavellian Intelligence II: Extensions and Evaluations. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-55949-2.
Byrne, Richard W. (2022), "Machiavellian Intelligence", in Vonk, Jennifer; Shackelford, Todd K. (eds.), Encyclopedia of Animal Cognition and Behavior, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 4033–4038, doi:10.1007/978-3-319-55065-7_781, ISBN 978-3-319-55065-7, retrieved 2023-06-25
DeCasien, Alex R.; Williams, Scott A.; Higham, James P. (27 March 2017). "Primate brain size is predicted by diet but not sociality". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 1 (5): 112. Bibcode:2017NatEE...1..112D. doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0112. PMID 28812699. S2CID 205564046.
Venditti, Chris (27 March 2017). "Evolution: Eating away at the social brain". Nature Ecology & Evolution. 1 (5): 122. Bibcode:2017NatEE...1..122V. doi:10.1038/s41559-017-0122. PMID 28812702. S2CID 7207012.

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