Our Large Brains Evolved From Sizing Each Other Up

Now here's one for you.

Did you know our brains evolved to be so large as a result of sizing each other up?

According to a new study, humans have evolved with a disproportionately large brain because we've learned to size each other up in large cooperative, social groups.

Newswise.com reports that the challenge of judging a person's relative standing and deciding whether or not to compete with him has promoted the rapid expansion of the brain over the last 2 million years.

The study found that evolution favors those who prefer to help others out who are at least as successful as they are.

That;s kind of interesting when you think about our dog-eat-dog world today.

"Our results suggest that the evolution of cooperation, which is key to a prosperous society, is intrinsically linked to the idea of social comparison -- constantly sizing each other up and making decisions as to whether we want to help them or not," write the authors.  "We've shown that over time, evolution favors strategies to help those who are at least as successful as themselves."

Research done by the authors showed that cooperation and reward may have been instrumental in driving brain growth.  I guess dinosaurs didn't help each other?









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