Sneaky Brain, Big Brain
The biggest brains belong to primates and humans. Biggest, that is, relative to their body size. (Not many whales or elephants get invited into Mensa; just a guess.) But what is a bigger brain good for? Sneaking around and being deceptive, it turns out from a UK study on monkeys and apes. Sneakiest primates have biggest brains describes the study.
The researchers arrived at their conclusions after studying a catalogue of observations of deceptive behaviours in wild primates from many researchers over several years up till 1990. What they found was that the frequency of deception in a species is directly proportional to the average volume of the animal's neocortex.
The larger neocortex, evidently gives the apes an advantage in dealing with social situations.
"I'm sure if we could have measured cooperative skill, we'd have found a similar result," says Byrne. "Cooperation and outwitting are not opposed - they're both about being socially subtle."
However, it is still not clear whether primates are ever aware of being deceptive. They may have no concept of dishonesty, knowing simply from experience that these behaviours get the result they want.
- Posted - 9:14:12 AM -
