Humans have many cognitive skills not possessed by their nearest primate relatives. The
cultural intelligence hypothesis argues that this is mainly due to a species-specific set of socialcognitive skills, emerging early in ontogeny, for participating and exchanging knowledge in
cultural groups. We tested this hypothesis by giving a comprehensive battery of cognitive tests to
large numbers of two of humans’ closest primate relatives, chimpanzees and orangutans, as well
as to 2.5-year-old human children before literacy and schooling. Supporting the cultural
intelligence hypothesis and contradicting the hypothesis that humans simply have more “general
intelligence,” we found that the children and chimpanzees had very similar cognitive skills for
dealing with the physical world but that the children had more sophisticated cognitive skills than
either of the ape species for dealing with the social world.
%0 Journal Article
%1 herrmann2007humans
%A Herrmann, Esther
%A Call, Josep
%A Hernández-Lloreda, María Victoria
%A Hare, Brian
%A Tomasello, Michael
%D 2007
%I American Association for the Advancement of Science
%J science
%K cognition intelligence psychology skills social spatial
%N 5843
%P 1360
%T Humans have evolved specialized skills of social cognition: The cultural intelligence hypothesis
%U http://www.eva.mpg.de/psycho/pdf/Publications_2007_PDF/Humans_have_evolved_07.pdf
%V 317
%X Humans have many cognitive skills not possessed by their nearest primate relatives. The
cultural intelligence hypothesis argues that this is mainly due to a species-specific set of socialcognitive skills, emerging early in ontogeny, for participating and exchanging knowledge in
cultural groups. We tested this hypothesis by giving a comprehensive battery of cognitive tests to
large numbers of two of humans’ closest primate relatives, chimpanzees and orangutans, as well
as to 2.5-year-old human children before literacy and schooling. Supporting the cultural
intelligence hypothesis and contradicting the hypothesis that humans simply have more “general
intelligence,” we found that the children and chimpanzees had very similar cognitive skills for
dealing with the physical world but that the children had more sophisticated cognitive skills than
either of the ape species for dealing with the social world.
@article{herrmann2007humans,
abstract = {Humans have many cognitive skills not possessed by their nearest primate relatives. The
cultural intelligence hypothesis argues that this is mainly due to a species-specific set of socialcognitive skills, emerging early in ontogeny, for participating and exchanging knowledge in
cultural groups. We tested this hypothesis by giving a comprehensive battery of cognitive tests to
large numbers of two of humans’ closest primate relatives, chimpanzees and orangutans, as well
as to 2.5-year-old human children before literacy and schooling. Supporting the cultural
intelligence hypothesis and contradicting the hypothesis that humans simply have more “general
intelligence,” we found that the children and chimpanzees had very similar cognitive skills for
dealing with the physical world but that the children had more sophisticated cognitive skills than
either of the ape species for dealing with the social world.},
added-at = {2011-10-16T10:40:03.000+0200},
author = {Herrmann, Esther and Call, Josep and Hernández-Lloreda, María Victoria and Hare, Brian and Tomasello, Michael},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/2d41d40c207a70bb5fc7cb70096c80d40/yish},
interhash = {f98eb25009f771743c45ebec33a41a3e},
intrahash = {d41d40c207a70bb5fc7cb70096c80d40},
journal = {science},
keywords = {cognition intelligence psychology skills social spatial},
number = 5843,
pages = 1360,
publisher = {American Association for the Advancement of Science},
timestamp = {2011-10-16T10:40:03.000+0200},
title = {Humans have evolved specialized skills of social cognition: The cultural intelligence hypothesis},
url = {http://www.eva.mpg.de/psycho/pdf/Publications_2007_PDF/Humans_have_evolved_07.pdf},
volume = 317,
year = 2007
}