The co-evolution of communication and cooperation

The co-evolution of communication and cooperation Organisms communicate through diverse means, encompassing puffs of chemicals, zaps of electricity, blasts of sound, reflections of light, and direct touch. These signals serve a great variety of functions and convey many forms of information, which biologists have been studying for over a century. Interestingly, these studies reveal that only a single species -- our own -- has evolved the capacity to gossip. Gossip enables humans to talk about third parties behind their backs. While seemingly trivial, this capacity may have powerful consequences for the evolution of human sociality, especially cooperation. In this talk, I will explore the impact of gossip on the evolution of cooperation. I will focus on recent computer simulations that I carried out to test how and why cooperation can evolve in fission-fusion societies. I will also touch upon empirical studies I have conducted across both human and nonhuman societies, including those of monkeys, birds, and hermit crabs. Finally, I will provide evidence for why gossip has evolved only in certain types of societies, namely those characterized by a special form of fission-fusion social organization.