• Question from:martijn

Hi,

Humans are - to my knowledge - the only species who are able to reflect about it's own emotions, thoughts, beliefs and behaviour. The questions is what are the current biological theories about this amazing capability ?  What is the neurobiological basis ? What adaptive advantage would introspection offer to humans compared to other species ?

Kind regards,
Martijn Gijsberti Hodenpij

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  • University of Bristol
  • Posts: 2,463

A number of points:-

1. there is every reason to think that some mammals are self aware and can reason. Elephants, chimps and whales all have clearly demonstrated emotions and behaviours - thus there is no reason to think that humans are unique in their ability to reflect on emotions - rather we are the only ones to talk and write about it!

2. the neurological basis for the above is very poorly understood whch is the same for memory and cognition

3. There is no particular reason why there has to be an adaptive advantage (though there may well be so) for a trait to survive - as long as it is not selected against.

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  • QMUL, London
  • Posts: 1,022

Agreed on all counts. I would argue that potentially there is an adaptive advantage here (could be, not necessarily is). A more socailly well adapted indiviudal (i.e. one that considers their own actions and the effect on others) will do better in a social group and the group will do better overall, potenatilly leading to greater reproductive success. After all, if aggression is minimised from a lack of social conflict then more time is dedicated to foraging / child reasing / socail bonding etc. and not wasted on fights and injuries.

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  • University of East Anglia
  • Posts: 139

Evolutionary biologist David Barash has some excellent thoughts on self awareness and consciousness in his 2007 book Natural Selections, and I will attempt to recount some of his reasoning here; while it is on one hand perfectly reasonable to imagine a world of sophisticated yet unaware automatons, there are good reasons why self awareness might have adaptive advantages.
As David (Hone) mentions above there is a potentially a strong social advantage, one does not have to imagine group survival for this to be the case either, but even if your own wellbeing and reproductive success were increased within a group, and I would like to expand on the point he makes.
Imagine a scenario where a primitive social situation has arisen, a group which relies on co-operation for survival, in a relatively intelligent species. Intelligent (but not yet necessarily fully self aware) creatures may have complex motives, and it is strongly advantageous in a social setting for other members of the group to be able to understand these motives and respond appropriately. For instance as mentioned above a sign of aggression from another member of the troop might be treated with matched aggression, however if it was possible through empathy and reasoning to understand the others motives (for instance something as simple as "I too was frustrated at being unable to open that difficult fruit yesterday, if I leave him for a while I'm sure he will calm down") Then unnecessary aggression has been avoided which benefits the group and the individual who avoided a confrontation. Such reasoning is only possible when you can place yourself in anothers situation, which again is only possible through introspection towards your own motives and goals.
Another area in which self awareness is aided is in the detection of cheaters, humans are astonishingly adapt at detecting cheaters, and we are extremely intolerant of them, easily understandable when we realise that cheating others of resources can place the whole group at risk. When a member of an intelligent species tries to cheat (mating with others partners, stealing fruit etc), it is that much harder to detect it, and that much easier with self awareness, which allows you to determine what others actions might be based on placing yourself in their shoes.
Sophisticated self awareness can easily be driven through increasingly complex social situations, and those who are best able to detect cheaters, organise their social encounters to their advantage etc.  will prosper within a group setting.