A Lecture with Michael Tomasello

Although great apes collaborate for some purposes, experimental studies comparing chimpanzees and human children suggest that human collaboration is unique in both its cognitive and social-motivational mechanisms. In particular humans seem adapted for collaborative foraging, as even young children display numerous relevant psychological mechanisms, from special forms of social and mental coordination to special ways of evaluating and sharing the spoils with partners. The Shared Intentionality hypothesis specifies the ontogeny of these unique psychological mechanisms for social coordination and explicates their consequences for human cognition and sociality.