According to conventional wisdom, our unique human intellect results from evolutionary pressures for skilled tool use and for communication to enhance co-operation. This book explores a quite different idea: that the driving force was social expertise, allowing subtle manipulation of others within the social group. The need to outwit one's clever colleagues then produces an evolutionary spiralling of `Machiavellian intelligence'. This book forms a complete and self-contained text on this topic, including the origins of the idea, a wealth of exciting applications in anthropology, psychology, and zoology, and a current evaluation of more traditional ideas --to what extent is Machiavellian intelligence complementary or alternative to them? With contributions by an international team of authors, the reader is brought to the frontiers of scientific work on the origin of human intellect.
Reviews
'A highly cohesive book that will serve as an excellent introduction to social intelligence.' Nature
'By adding a few connecting chapters of their own in which they set out the issues clearly, they have created a highly cohesive book that will serve as an excellent introduction to social intelligence.'Nature February 1989
'.. an exceptionally important collection, of papers.' The Psychologist
`.. this book will surely become a standard point of departure for future work.' THES
`This book will be read and appreciated for two reasons. The first is that it raises or enhances our intellectual curiosity both about the evolution of social knowledge and about how social knowledge itself evolves. By so doing, the authors compel us to adjust our thinking about evolution and behaviour. The second is that it presents a novel and engaging format that teaches the reader.' Contemporary Psychology USA



Book Information
ISBN 9780198521754
Author Richard W. Byrne
Format Paperback
Page Count 430
Imprint Clarendon Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 629g
Dimensions(mm) 233mm * 152mm * 23mm