Machiavellian Intelligence : Social Expertise and the Evolution of Intellect in Monkeys, Apes, and Humans

Our unique human intellect, it is usually argued, results from evolutionary pressures for skilled tool use and communication to enhance co-operation. This book explores a quite different idea: that the driving force was social expertise. The need to outwit one's clever colleagues produced an evolutionary spiralling of `Machiavellian intelligence'. This book is a complete text on this topic, including the origins of the idea, a wealth of exciting applications in anthropology, psychology, and zoology, and a comparison with more traditional ideas.