primatology Primatology is the scientific study of non-human primates. It is a diverse discipline at the boundary between mammalogy and anthropology, and researchers can be found in academic departments of anatomy, anthropology, biology, medicine, psychol ...

, the Machiavellian intelligence or social brain hypothesis describes the capacity of primates to manoeuvre in complex

social group In the social sciences, a social group is defined as two or more people who interact with one another, share similar characteristics, and collectively have a sense of unity. Regardless, social groups come in a myriad of sizes and varieties. F ...

s. The first introduction of this concept came from

Frans de Waal Franciscus Bernardus Maria de Waal (29 October 1948 – 14 March 2024) was a Dutch-American primatologist and ethologist. He was the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Primate Behavior in the Department of Psychology at Emory University in ...

's book ''Chimpanzee Politics'' (1982). In the book de Waal notes that chimpanzees performed certain social maneuvering behaviors that he thought of as being "Machiavellian". This hypothesis posits that large brains and distinctive cognitive abilities of primates have evolved via intense social competition in which social competitors developed increasingly sophisticated strategies as a means to achieve higher social and

reproductive success Reproductive success is an individual's production of offspring per breeding event or lifetime. This is not limited by the number of offspring produced by one individual, but also the reproductive success of these offspring themselves. Reproduct ...

Overview

Origin of the term

The term "Machiavellian intelligence" originates from the primatologist

, who noted that the behaviors of primates was so elaborate that it could perhaps be compared to political behavior today. Primatologists

Nicholas Humphrey Nicholas Keynes Humphrey (born 27 March 1943) is an English neuropsychologist based in Cambridge, known for his work on the evolution of primate intelligence and consciousness. He studied mountain gorillas with Dian Fossey in Rwanda; he was t ...

Andrew Whiten David Andrew Whiten, known as Andrew Whiten (born 1948) is a British zoologist and psychologist, Professor of Evolutionary and Developmental Psychology, and Professor Wardlaw Emeritus at University of St Andrews in Scotland.Richard Byrne were instrumental in developing this theory. Byrne and Whiten edited two volumes that compiled interdisciplinary research exploring the theme, ''Machiavellian Intelligence: Social Expertise and the Evolution of Intellect in Monkeys, Apes, and Humans'' (Oxford University Press, 1988) and ''Machiavellian Intelligence II: Extensions and Evaluations'' (Cambridge University Press, 1997). They observed that primates, particularly great apes, displayed intricate social behaviors such as alliance formation, deception, and reconciliation. These behaviors seemed to require cognitive abilities beyond what was necessary for basic survival tasks like foraging or avoiding predators.

Relations with other research

As a concept, it is also conflated with, and mistaken for the

Machiavellianism Machiavellianism may refer to: *Machiavellianism (politics), the political philosophy of Niccolò Machiavelli, usually associated with various forms of political realism. *Machiavellianism (psychology), a scale in personality psychology that meas ...

personality construct, which focuses on the affective-interpersonal traits of human beings, such as unemotionality and exploitativeness, while Machiavellian Intelligence deals with the social behaviors of primates and is not focused on immoral actions.

Primate social behavior

In ''Chimpanzee Politics'', de Waal describes the various social behaviors among chimpanzees, focusing specifically on interactions such as coat hair grooming. The first section explains the "submissive greeting," where a more submissive chimpanzee acknowledges a dominant one through pant-grunting, bobbing, or bringing objects like leaves or sticks. Dominant chimps respond by making themselves appear larger, while the submissive one may crouch or present their backside for inspection. Among adult males, dominance can be further exaggerated by actions like stepping over the subordinate, reinforcing social rank through physical gestures. Another part of the book highlights grooming as the most frequent social activity in the Arnhem colony. Chimpanzees gather in grooming clusters, carefully attending to each other's hair while making soft sounds. This behavior strengthens social bonds and demonstrates their enjoyment of being groomed. Meanwhile, young chimpanzees, especially those slightly older, engage in energetic play, sometimes disrupting grooming groups by running through them or throwing sand, showing the coexistence of structured social order and youthful exuberance within the chimpanzee community. Chimpanzees try to detect early signs of hostility to avoid conflict. Female aggression is described as sudden and unpredictable, while male aggression builds up gradually through body swaying, raised hackles, increased vocalizations, and ultimately an attack.

Criticisms

Researchers Shirley C. Strum, Deborah Forster and Edwin Hutchins state that "We suggest that Machiavellian intelligence may be a misnomer." and that "primate social complexity appears to be an intricate tapestry of competition and cooperation, of aggression and reconciliation, of nonaggressive social alternatives, and of behaviors and relationships that cannot be easily categorized into simple opposites." Critics also cite that the "exceptions" in the form of small-brained primates in very large groups typically eat abundant but nutrient-poor foods (such as geladas that eat grass), as predicted by the food-based model, and argue that the higher individual need for nutrients put on by large brains causes groups to become smaller if the species have the same degree of digestive specialisation and environmental availability of food.

References

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