The Purpose of Brainpower: Are We "Misusing" Our Minds?

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/after-service/201902/the-purpose-brainpower-are-we-misusing-our-minds

Rob Henderson After Service

"SNIP....

The Social Brain Hypothesis

One answer for this, according to von Hippel, comes from the social brain hypothesis. The idea is that we have big brains because our ancestors had to navigate complicated social dynamics.

For early humans, their most complex puzzles often involved figuring out the minds of their fellow humans. And their social status relied on their ability to solve social challenges. Our ability to reason about non-social problems is a fortunate side-effect of our social reasoning skills.

As von Hippel says, “it suggests that IQ is a by-product of social intelligence rather than the other way around.” We are social innovators more than technical ones.

He also says, “our intelligence didn’t evolve to solve abstract problems and complex ways of dealing with the environment. Our intelligence evolved to deal with each other more effectively and to leverage the skills and abilities we have when we work together.”


.....SNIP"