The Rector and Permanent Fellows of COLLEGIUM BUDAPEST Institute for Advanced Study invite you to a Public Lecture by Robin Dunbar School of Biological Sciences University of Liverpool Liverpool, UK Evolution of the Social Brain on Thursday 23 May 2002 5.30 p.m. at Collegium Budapest 1014 Budapest Szentháromság u. 2. ABSTRACT Language and conversation are distinctively human behaviours. But why should they be unique to our species? The explanation lies in the phenomenon known as the "social brain", a distinctively primate adaptation. Primates are characterised by two unusual features: brains that are bigger for body size than is the case for any other group of animals and some highly developed social skills. I shall show that these features are correlated: primates' large brains have evolved because they are needed to allow the animals to engage in more complex calculations when interacting socially. This leads us to ask what it is that primates are doing that is so complicated as to need a larger brain. The answer lies in aspects of social cognition like "theory of mind" - the ability to understand how another individual sees the world. Pulling these two themes together then allows us to see why and how language might have evolved in the human lineage - and not anywhere else. Language is needed to supplement social grooming (the main way in which primates bond their social groups) when group size exceeds a certain limit. In effect, language is a form of grooming at a distance that allows us to enlarge the circle of individuals that we can interact with. CV of Robin Dunbar Robin Dunbar graduated in Philosophy and Psychology from the University of Oxford, and went on to do a PhD in animal behaviour at the University of Bristol. During the last 30 years, he has studied the behaviour of wild primates and antelope in various parts of Africa. More recently, his research has focussed on three main areas: developing mathematical models of socio-ecological and reproductive decision- making in primates, human behavioural ecology (with a particular emphasis on mate choice strategies and parental investment decisions), and the cognitive mechanisms that underpin these kinds of decisions in primates and humans. He leads a group of 3 faculty staff and around 15 postgraduate students working on a broad range of subjects within these areas. His most recent books include: The Trouble with Science (1995), Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language (1996), The Evolution of Culture (1999), Primate Conservation Biology (2000) and Human Evolutionary Psychology (2002). Csaba Pleh, Professor of Psychology Budapest U. of Technology and Economics, Center for Cognitive Science Presently at Collegium Budapest, Budapest, Szentharomsag u 2 H-1014 cspleh@ colbud.hu, T: 3612248323, Fax: 3612248310 Mobile: (06)303500431