ReviewPhilosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences2012
Social complexity as a proximate and ultimate factor in communicative complexity.
Review in Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 149 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
149 citing papers in PubMed.
- Utterance evolution: the road to generative, combinatorial communicators.Biological reviews of the Cambridge Philosophical Society · 2026Review
- Elephant gestural communication during agonistic interactions: repertoire, intentionality, and goals.Animal cognition · 2026Article
- The Vocal Repertoire of Gray-Cheeked Mangabeys (Lophocebus albigena) in the Bugoma Forest Reserve, Uganda.American journal of primatology · 2026Article
- Relationship Value, Emotion, and Uncertainty Shape Conflict-Resolution Communication in a Wild Primate.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2026Article
- Rhythm and timing in laughter reveal that human vocal plasticity falls on a hominid continuum.Communications biology · 2026Article
- Article
- Call combination order and iterations may shift meaning in sooty mangabey vocal sequences.BMC biology · 2026Article
- Social engagement modulates wild monkeys' vocal expressions and the behavioral response to that of others.iScience · 2026Article
- Article
- Facially Expressive People are More Popular in Newly Formed Groups: A Social Network Analysis.Journal of nonverbal behavior · 2026Article
- Social environment affects vocal individuality in a non-learning species.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Challenges and new opportunities in deciphering the meaning of corvid call sequences.Animal cognition · 2025Review
- The Social Relevance of Numbers: Insights from Animal Studies.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Social Interactions Are Related to Cognitive Development in Western Australian Magpie Fledglings.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
- A rat model of volitional mutual social interactions.Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Individual vocal identity is enhanced by the enlarged external nose in male proboscis monkeys (Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2025Article
- The role of musical pitch in long-distance defensive signaling.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025Review
- The gestural repertoire of Bwindi mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei): gesture form and frequency of use.Animal cognition · 2025Article
- How can we use social network analysis to better understand Chimpanzee and Gorilla sociality and communication?Animal cognition · 2025Review
- The Constructive Neutral Evolution of Behaviour.Ecology and evolution · 2025Article
89 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The 'social complexity hypothesis' for communication posits that groups with complex social systems require more complex communicative systems to regulate interactions and relations among group members. Complex social systems, compared with simple social systems, are those in which individuals frequently interact in many different contexts with many different individuals, and often repeatedly interact with many of the same individuals in networks over time. Complex communicative systems, compared with simple communicative systems, are those that contain a large number of structurally and functionally distinct elements or possess a high amount of bits of information. Here, we describe some of the historical arguments that led to the social complexity hypothesis, and review evidence in support of the hypothesis. We discuss social complexity as a driver of communication and possible causal factor in human language origins. Finally, we discuss some of the key current limitations to the social complexity hypothesis-the lack of tests against alternative hypotheses for communicative complexity and evidence corroborating the hypothesis from modalities other than the vocal signalling channel.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.