CMSS 2014 Summer Workshop - Jonathan Newton
Channel: Centre for Mathematical Social Sciences
Date: 15/12/2014

The Evolution of Shared Intentions. Presentation by Jonathan Newton at the Centre for Mathematical Social Sciences 2014 Summer Workshop.

Abstract:
It has been hypothesized that the evolution of modern human cognition was catalyzed by the development of jointly intentional modes of behaviour. From an early age (1- 2 years), human infants outperform apes at tasks that involve collaborative activity. Specifically, human infants excel at joint action motivated by reasoning of the form we will do X (shared intentionality), as opposed to reasoning of the form I will do X [because he is doing X] (individual intentionality). The mechanism behind the evolution of human shared intentionality is unknown. Here we formally model the evolution of jointly intentional action and show under what conditions it is likely to have emerged in paleolithic man. Modelling the interaction of paleolithic hunter-gatherers as a coordination game, we find that when the benefits from adopting new technologies or norms are low but positive, shared intentionality does not evolve. When the benefits from adopting new technologies or norms are high, such as may be the case during a period of rapid environmental change, shared intentionality evolves and rapidly becomes dominant in the population. Our results shed new light on how humans evolved into the collaborative species we are today.