ArticlePNAS nexus2026
Survival of the wittiest (not friendliest): The art and science behind human linguistic and cognitive evolution.
Article in PNAS nexus, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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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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Abstract
There are several previous findings, both theoretical and experimental, that have paved the way toward the view of human evolution as the "survival of the wittiest," subject to sexual selection, offering better explanatory power than the "survival of the friendliest." While research on language evolution has largely neglected the artistic dimension, the fitness in humans is correlated with linguistic eloquence, including humor. This is one of those cases where science can only explain a phenomenon by considering its artistic dimension, and in which linguistic creativity and genetics come into direct contact. My argument is that selection for quick-wittedness (using and combining words in a clever and funny way), specific to language and unique to humans, needs to be added to the complex picture of human evolution, relevant from the earliest stages of language/grammar. Wittiness is a trait that allows competition (by "outwitting" others) while at the same time favoring "friendliness" in that it provides an excellent platform for replacing physical aggression with verbal behavior and cognitive contest, the hallmarks of human nature. This proposal is based on a precise linguistic reconstruction of the earliest stages of grammar, providing linguistic detail ("living fossils") necessary for hypothesis testing, including neuroimaging experiments.
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