Culture of creativity sets us apart

Is there an evolutionary explanation for humanity’s greatest successes — technology, science, and the arts — with roots that can be traced back to animal behaviour? I first asked this question 30 years ago, and have been working to answer it ever since.

Plenty of animals use tools, emit signals, imitate one another, and possess memories of past events. Some even develop learned traditions that entail consuming particular foods or singing songs — acts that, to some extent, resemble human culture.

But human mental ability stands far apart. We live in complex societies organised around linguistically coded rules, morals, and social institutions, with a massive reliance on technology.

Developmental psychologists have established that when it comes to dealing with the physical world, human toddlers’ cognitive skills are already comparable to those of adult chimpanzees and orangutans. In terms of social cognition (such as imitating others or understanding intentions), toddlers’ minds are far more sophisticated.

The same gap is observed in both communication and cooperation. Vaunted claims that apes produce language do not stand up to scrutiny: animals can learn the meanings of signs and string together simple word combinations, but they cannot master syntax. And experiments show that apes cooperate far less readily than humans.

Thanks to advances in comparative cognition, scientists are now confident that other animals do not possess hidden reasoning powers and cognitive complexity, and that the gap between human and animal intelligence is genuine. So how could something as extraordinary and unique as the human mind evolve? A major interdisciplinary effort has recently solved this longstanding evolutionary puzzle. The answer is surprising. It turns out that our species’ most extraordinary characteristics — our intelligence, language, cooperation, and technology — did not evolve as adaptive responses to external conditions. Rather, humans are creatures of their own making, with minds that were built not just for culture, but by culture. In other words, culture transformed the evolutionary process.

Key insights came from studies on animal behaviour, which showed that, although social learning (copying) is widespread in nature, animals are highly selective about what and whom they copy. Copying confers an evolutionary advantage only when it is accurate and efficient. Natural selection should therefore favour structures and capabilities in the brain that enhance the accuracy and efficiency of social learning.

Consistent with this prediction, research reveals strong associations between behavioural complexity and brain size. Big-brained primates invent new behaviours, copy the innovations of others, and use tools more than small-brained primates do. Selection for high intelligence derives from multiple sources, but recent imply that selection for the intelligence to cope with complex social environments in monkeys and apes was followed by more restricted selection for cultural intelligence in the great apes, capuchins, and macaques.

Why, then, haven’t gorillas invented Facebook, or capuchins built spacecraft? To achieve such high levels of cognitive functioning requires not just cultural intelligence, but also cumulative culture. That demands transmission of information with a degree of accuracy of which only humans are capable. Indeed, small increases in the accuracy of social transmission lead to big increases in the diversity and longevity of culture, as well as to fads, fashions, and conformity.

Our ancestors were able to achieve such high-fidelity information transmission not just because of language, but also because of teaching — a practice that is rare in nature, but universal among humans (once the subtle forms it takes are recognised). Evidence suggests that language originally evolved to reduce the costs, increase the accuracy, and expand the domains of teaching.

All of the elements that have underpinned the development of human cognitive abilities have one key characteristic in common: the conditions that favoured their evolution were created by cultural activities, through selective feedback. Human culture sets us apart from the rest of the animal kingdom. Grasping its scientific basis enriches our understanding of our history – and why we became the species we are.

Why haven’t gorillas invented Facebook, or capuchins built spacecraft? To achieve such levels of cognitive functioning requires cultural intelligence