The Social Face Hypothesis.

ABSTRACT: Meeting the demands of a social world is an incredibly complex task. Since humans are able to navigate the social world so effortlessly, our ability to both interpret and signal complex social and emotional information is arguably shaped by evolutionary pressures. Dunbar (1992) tested this assumption in his Social Brain Hypothesis, observing that different primates' neocortical volume predicted their average social network size, suggesting that neocortical evolution was driven at least in part by social demands. Here we examined the Social Face Hypothesis, based on the assumption that the face co-evolved with the brain to signal more complex and nuanced emotional, mental, and behavioral states to others. Despite prior observations suggestive of this conclusion (e.g., Redican, 1982), it has

SUBMITTER: Albohn DN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9537389 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature