The evolution of group-mindedness: comparative research on top-down and bottom-up group cooperation in bonobos and chimpanzees

Abstract

Humans engage in a wide variety of group-based cooperation and competition, the cognitive underpinnings of which form "group-mindedness.” The evolutionary basis of these tendencies has attracted significant research from theorists and human-oriented scholars, where evidence suggests a different set of strategies and solutions may be required for explicitly group-based challenges than simply an accumulation of dyadic and triadic solutions embedded in a group setting. We term these top-down and bottom-up group cooperation, respectively. Here, we review previous evolutionary accounts for human group-mindedness, empirical data on bonobos and chimpanzees (focusing on behaviour, cognition, and physiology), and propose a set of future research directions that can help to further our understanding of the evolution of group-mindedness