Psst, you'll never guess what he's done now

• Autores: Mairi MacLeod
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2539, 2006, pág. 11
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • To find out whether gossip spreads through groups of people better than other information about them, UK-based researchers Alex Mesoudi and Andrew Whiten of the University of St Andrews and Robin Dunbar of the University of Liverpool used a method akin to "Chinese whispers." They found that gossip-like information involving deception and infidelity, and details involving general information about the interactions of third parties, were remembered and transmitted in greater quantity than purely descriptive information about individuals or their environment. The findings lend support to the idea that primate intelligence originally evolved in response to social pressures rather than non-social demands such as finding food or using tools.