Selection and Emotional Attunement
by Daniel Johnson
In the book, Nonverbal Communication: Where Nature Meets Culture,
I ran across an interesting research paper by Jonathan Turner, discussing the
evolution of emotions as the nonverbal basis of human social organization. Of
particular interest to me in this paper by Turner was the discussion of
selective forces towards increased emotional attunement in our hominid
ancestors.
In this paper, Turner hypothesizes that selection would have favored high
degrees of emotional differentiation among organisms with large neocortexes and
that were inherently individualistic, such as the hominoids that homo sapiens evolved from. Without
having the genetic propensity to form rigid social structures, a wide array of
emotions would facilitate attunement, or the harmonious relationship between
apelike hominids, and the formation of adaptive group structures. In a study
conducted by (Kempner 1987) that was presented in this paper, the argument was
made that selection operated to differentiate primary emotions, then variations
on these, and finally combinations of these primary emotions and their
variations. It is hypothesized that expansion of the hominid neocortex from Austrolopithecus through homo habilis through homo sapiens was not just the result of
selection for more cognitive capacity to symbolize and use language (Turner 1988).
Selection was also taking place to expand the range of emotions, so that
signaling and communication could be nonverbal, partially conscious, and fast
and efficient, allowing interpersonal attunement to not overload conscious
verbal communication which can at times be slow and inefficient (Turner 1988).
This paper by Turner shows that the evolution of emotions as well as the
ability to quickly detect and read other people’s emotion were massive
evolutionary achievements, driven by selective forces toward fast and efficient
nonverbal communication. It led to increased group fitness among our hominid
ancestors in environments ridden with predators and where the competition for
resources with others primates was fierce. The complex array of emotions that
our species display is what truly makes us unique, and the development of these
emotions was driven by selective forces towards increased emotional attunement.
Word Count: 369
Turner, J.H. (1988) A Theory of Social Interaction. Stanford, Ca: Stanford University Press
I am curious as to why Dr Turner assumes that hominids were under selection for emotional attunement specifically because they lacked a genetic predilection for social structures. Apes and our other closest evolutionary relatives do exhibit extremely sophisticated social hierarchies. I think emotional development nay have actually been helped by the hominids' propensity to form large groups. After all, in a complex group with multiple leaderships and responsibilities, hominids would have needed every kind of adaptation: genotypic and phenotypic - to increase their chances of survival.
ReplyDeleteI found this very interesting since when I think of evolution I previously only though of selection of physical traits. It makes sense that fast and efficient recognition and comprehension of nonverbal communication could play a role in increased survival. I wonder if other studies have shown a correlation between neocortex size and nonverbal communication in other species.
ReplyDeleteHow cool! This introduces a whole other aspect of evolution I never considered. When I think of evolution, I incidentally think 'survival of the fittest,' species becoming faster, better, stronger. But then I remember that evolution is about adaptation to one's environment. A visual communication system would be an adaptation that increases an individual's fitness by allowing the formation of complex groups. There's debate as to whether H. neadertalis verbally communicated with each (i.e. developed language) because they possesed the throat mechanisms to do so. If they did communicate, interestingly, their voice would have sounded like a high-pitch woman's voice. This post made me think that even if neadertalis didn't verbally communicate with each other, they used emotion as their method of communication.
ReplyDeleteI think the study of emotional evolution is so cool! I wonder how much the field could advance with collaboration between biologists and psychologists.
ReplyDeleteThis is fascinating. I wonder how this evolution toward emotional attunement relates with the evolution of facial expression, as discussed by your group member Alex Hilser. It seems logical the two abilities might have evolved together.
ReplyDeleteSo cool!!! My boyfriend is terrible at reading my emotions, though... I think this must mean he's still a monkey. I'll break the news to him gently.
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