There has been a lot of empirical and philosophical research on social cognition, in particular, on our ability to share attention with others, to put ourselves in the perspective of others, and to understand other people's intentions. As Gallotti and Frith point out in their recent article "Social cognition in the we-mode", many theorists still conceptualize social cognition in terms of individual minds and their capacities. Gallotti and Frith propose that interacting minds result in an irreducible 'we' mode, a collective mode of sharing minds that expands each of the participating minds' potential for understanding and action. This shift in social cognition research moves away from looking at social cognition in disembodied minds, but rather examines how people can augment their abilities by acting together with others. This can shed light on the persistence and role of cognitive variability in humans, which I believe has also been studied too much in terms of individual cognition, and not enough in terms of interacting minds.
Take, for instance, people on the autistic spectrum. The prevalence of autism is quite high (although the high prevalence recently might largely be due to improved detection and early diagnosis). There have been numerous attempts to try to identity the underlying causes, such as (recently) older fathers, inducing labor, or genetic factors. Autism is also sometimes regarded as an extreme outlier in the normal range. In all cases, the underlying idea is that autism is abnormal, something that needs to be prevented, and failing that, treated so that the patient behaves in a way that approximates neurotypical children and adults. Terms like 'autism epidemic' and the recent scare over the alleged (now debunked) link between autism and the MMR vaccine reinforce this negative image of autism, something to be prevented at all costs.
While people with autism and their families undeniably face many challenges, looking at cognition in the "we" mode may shed new light on the phenomenon and may help explain its prevalence.
Rather than looking at autism as a cognitive abnormality, we could regard the contribution of high-functioning people with the condition as a positive contributing factor human cultural evolution. People with autism have difficulties sharing their mental states with others, but they care about others in their community, and through social scaffolding, they can successfully interact with others who can benefit from their insights.
The archaeologist Penny Spikins has a fascinating article on the evolutionary origins of autism. She argues "There is every reason to suggest in contrast that what makes ‘us’ human is not a single ‘normal’ mind but a complex interdependency between different minds in which autism plays a key role". High-functioning people with autism have cognitive strengths less developed in neurotypical individuals, such as a heightened attention to details, patterns and regularities, insights into mechanical systems, motoric systems and numbers. They also engage differently with material culture, for instance, young children will line up and order toys rather than engage in pretend play with them.
Spikins speculates that technological innovations in human evolution over the past 100,000 years, such as calendrical notation systems and tallies could have been invented by people with autism. For instance, the Abri Blanchard plaque (32,000 years old), records the phases of the Moon together with its location in the night sky over a time period in spring (see image: the dates and phases are indicated). A person with autism is more likely to notice such intricate patterns than a neurotypical individual. The revolutionary changes in material culture starting about 70,000 years ago in Africa, and 40,000 years ago in Europe could thus be the result of the incorporation of people with cognitively variable traits, by engaging in social cognition with them, and, collectively, approach problem. By approaching problems collectively, new insights (such as calendrical systems) can be gained. As Gallotti and Frith write "The idea of participatory sense-making is that central aspects of (individual) cognitive performance, notably meaning-formation, are inherently relational. It is by interacting with physical and social objects, including the minds of other people, that the world becomes meaningful to individuals."
Unlike other primates, humans since the middle Pleistocene (about 700,000 years ago) have taken special efforts to take care of others who fall outside of the typical range in terms of physical characteristics. There is ample evidence of care for people with severe congenital disabilities, for instance, a Homo heidelbergensis (500000 year old) fossilized skull of a child with a severe cranial abnormality from Sima de los Huesos who survived until at least age 10, a remarkable fact that leads the discoverer of the skull to conclude that she enjoyed special care from those her community. This increased tolerance of otherness could have provided a significant advantage for hominids.
Mathematical models indicate the importance of participatory sense-making in the emergence of complex cultural traits in human evolution, and in science today. It would be interesting to try to model how shared participation in problem-solving with people with various cognitive strengths (such as people with autism, and for instance also, schizotypy) could enhance cognition.
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