29 January 2022 | New Scientist |
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R
ESEARCH on the evolution
of language suggests that
our communication is
largely about cooperation. When
we speak with each other, the idea
goes, we do so to help coordinate
our actions. Antelope hunters,
for example, who can signal their
movements to each other will do
better than those who can’t tell
others what they are going to do
next. Talking benefits others,
and often ourselves.
This perspective, however,
ignores elements of an ignoble
past: the history of language is
also one of subtle lies, not clear
truths. Recognising that our
communication is a mix of such
evolutionary influences can help
us better understand our origins
and broach big problems of our
time, discerning truth from falsity
and honesty from disinformation.
Animal signals are the basis of
all communication, including
human language. When animals
signal to one another, the point,
evolutionarily speaking, is for self-
benefit. Take Batesian mimicry,
which is named after the 19th-
century naturalist Henry Walter
Bates. This involves, for example,
a butterfly gaining an edge by
evolving colouration that deters
predators because it looks similar
to another species that is toxic,
without any need to expend effort
to gain toxicity itself. A lie of sorts.
Yet, unlike in the natural
world, human languages don’t
appear to be bound by the rule of
selfishness: we can and do talk to
help each other, not just ourselves.
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Comment
Two cognitive scientists, Thom
Scott-Phillips and Christophe
Heintz, recently argued that
we humans, uniquely, express
ourselves in ways that aren’t
directly dictated by evolution.
We don’t talk just to attract mates
or scare predators: the ways we
communicate, like the ways we
think, aren’t bound to survival
and reproduction alone.
Instead, the complexity of
language, they argue, relates to
the largely interconnected and
interdependent lives we lead.
But we still have to choose those
people we would most like to
connect with – our friends –
based on shared ideals and
behaviours that best promote
our mutual benefit. And it is
those choices that force us to rely
on the complexity of language to
advertise ourselves to others, and
to adjust those advertisements to
our own circumstances.
Of course, these cooperation-
promoting qualities of language
don’t mean that when we talk, we
are always doing so for cooperative
reasons – or that what we say is
always honest. As the renowned
biologist William Hamilton wrote
more than half a century ago, we
are just as likely to use language to
deceive – be it others or ourselves.
Today, with easy access to
more information than ever in
our evolutionary history, the so-
called infodemic makes choosing
our sources and the best evidence
a difficult and daunting task.
Recognising all the origins of
language, from the most basic
non-linguistic signal to the layered
subtleties of poetry, can help us.
When someone says, for example,
that taxation doesn’t reduce
inequality or that vaccines don’t
work, the listener should pay close
attention not just to the speaker’s
arguments, but to the reasons
they have for making them. Lies,
like the false colouration of the
Batesian butterfly’s wings, are
cheap, while the truth takes
hard work, be it scientific,
philosophical or artistic.
Evolutionary research has
shown, convincingly, that
human communication is as
much about the listener as about
the signaller. We have the power
to discern what others want from
us – and we should use lessons
from the natural world, and our
own history, to tell what motives
lie behind someone’s language,
and what they might be trying to
hide. We shouldn’t naively assume
that language always helps us to
cooperate, but with close listening
and reasoning, we can maximise
the odds that it does.
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