Why are humans so clever? This book explores the idea that this cleverness has evolved through the increasing complexity of social groups. It brings together contributions from leaders in the field, examining social intelligence in different animal species and exploring its development, evolution and the brain systems upon which it depends.

Introduction: Social intelligence: from brain to culture ; 1. Cognitive adaptations of social bonding in birds ; 2. Social cognition by food-caching corvids: the western scrub-jay as a natural psychologist ; 3. Social intelligence in the spotted hyena (Crocuta crocuta) ; 4. The adaptive value of soicality in mammalian agroups ; 5. Social brains, simple minds: does social complexity really require cognitive complexity? ; 6. Culture in great apes: using intricate complexity in feeding skills to trace the evolutionary origin of human technical prowess ; 7. Dolphin social intelligence: complex alliance relationships in bottlenose dolphins and a consideration of selective environments for extreme brain size evolution in mammals ; 8. The evolution of animal 'cultures' and social intelligence ; 9. Getting back to the rough ground: deception and 'social living' ; 10. Cooperation and human cognition: the Vygotskian intelligence hypothesis ; 11. Understanding primate brain evolution ; 12. Before and below 'theory of mind': embodied simulation and the neural correlates of social cognition ; 13. The social brain? ; 14. Socially intelligent robots: dimensions of human-robot interaction ; 15. Did farming arise from a misappliction of social intelligence? ; 16. Social intelligence, human intelligence and niche construction ; 17. On the lack of evidence that non-human animals possess anything remotely resembling a 'theory of mind' ; 18. The society of selves

Presents an impressive range of contributions from leading figures in psychology and biology, examining the social intelligence hypothesis Shows why social intelligence is important, how it has developed, and the brain mechanisms upon it relies

Presents an impressive range of contributions from leading figures in psychology and biology, examining the social intelligence hypothesis Shows why social intelligence is important, how it has developed, and the brain mechanisms upon it relies