252 POTENTIAL BETWEEN BRAINSBigger brains or not, a popu lar idea is that primates have enhanced
cognitive abilities because of their enriched social lives. Robin Dunbar
says that “primates have unusually large brains for body size compared
to all other vertebrates: Primates evolved large brains to manage their
unusually complex social systems.”^18 Living in primate groups certainly
involves intense interactions among group members, requiring a wide
range of gestural and vocal communications. Th e downside, it is said, is
that they have to compete with one another for food and other resources,
oft en forming temporary partnerships to do so. Observers frequently
report enhanced ability to predict others’ intentions, constructing feints
and deceptions, cheating, and so on.
Somewhat paradoxically, then, it is such within- group competition
that (it is argued) demands sophisticated social cognition in primate
groups. Th is argument was put forth by Nicholas Humphrey in the
1970s.^19 He claimed that the need for individuals to negotiate tricky rival-
ries and rank orders has demanded a new kind of smartness. A “Machia-
vellian hypothesis” became widely accepted, based on observations of
deception and cheating among members of a few primate groups. By such
cognitively clever means, individuals are said to reap the benefi ts of
social life, while minimizing the personal costs.
In what has become the dogma of a paradigm, this kind of coopera-
tion is defi ned purely in terms of individual gain, dictated by personal
perception and cognition. Th us Bshary and colleagues have attempted
to model primate be hav ior on a market philosophy and game theory
with fi xed rules.^20 A more recent article in Nature (May 26, 2015) cites
Ronald Noë, a primate behavioral ecologist, who has “come up with a bio-
logical market- based theory of cooperation. It proposes that animals
cooperate to trade a specifi c commodity— such as food— for a ser vice
that would promote their survival, such as protection from a predator.”
Again, cognitive abilities are refl ective of the need to “deceive” and
“cheat.”^21
So has this evolutionary “market economy” produced more complex
cognitive skills situated in bigger brains? Let us address the brain ques-
tion fi rst. In fact, the evidence is indirect and thin. It has mainly been
couched in terms of whether those living in more complex groups have
bigger brains. However, complexity has not been analyzed except in terms
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