Journal article
Why humans aren't just great apes: humans and the social brain
- Abstract:
- Professor Robin Dunbar FBA gave the 2007 Joint British Academy/British Psychological Society Lecture. He argued that the real difference between humans and the great apes lies in our ability to live in the virtual world of the mind. Story-telling plays an important role in social bonding in all human cultures, and it requires us to be able to imagine worlds that do not physically exist. In this edited extract, Professor Dunbar discusses the significance of the human 'social brain', and its computational power.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
Actions
Authors
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- Journal:
- British Academy Review More from this journal
- Issue:
- 11
- Pages:
- 15-17
- Publication date:
- 2008-07-01
- Edition:
- Publisher's version
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
- Subjects:
- UUID:
-
uuid:0a8cfd0a-af5d-48c1-9cc6-3cfea93d0984
- Local pid:
-
ora:2959
- Deposit date:
-
2009-09-15
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- British Academy
- Copyright date:
- 2008
- Notes:
-
Citation: Dunbar, R. (2008). 'Why humans aren't just great apes: humans and the social brain', British Academy Review, 11, 15-17. [Available at http://www.britac.ac.uk/pubs/review/11/index.cfm].
N.B. Professor Dunbar is now based at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the University of Oxford. One image has been removed from the article for copyright reasons.
If you are the owner of this record, you can report an update to it here: Report update to this record