The Evolution of the Human Self: Tracing the Natural History of Self‐Awareness

Abstract

Previous discussions of the evolution of the self have diverged greatly in their estimates of the date at which the capacity for self‐thought emerged, the factors that led self‐reflection to evolve, and the nature of the evidence offered to support these disparate conclusions. Beginning with the assumption that human self‐awareness involves a set of distinct cognitive abilities that evolved at different times to solve different adaptive problems, we trace the evolution of self‐awareness from the common ancestor of humans and apes to the beginnings of culture, drawing upon paleontological, anthropological, biological, and psychological evidence. These data converge to suggest that that modern self‐thought appeared just prior to the Middle‐Upper Paleolithic transition, approximately 60,000 years ago.Recto running head: Evolution of the Self.

Adaptive workarounds

“…Although our understanding of the psychology of early hominids is far from complete, archaeological, anthropological, and comparative biological approaches may reveal clues about the psychology of these species and can thereby guide hypotheses about the modern human mind [5,10,11,12,13].…”

The Neural Basis of Semantic and Episodic Forms of Self-Knowledge: Insights from Functional Neuroimaging

“…and 60,000 years ago, where we find instances of technological advances, art, body adornment and ritualistic burial) and it may be specifically human. 9 Humans are able to consciously represent and reflect on their own personal attributes, such as their abilities and skills (e.g., "I can play guitar"), social roles (e.g., "I am a father"), psychological characteristics (e.g., "I am a shy person") and preferences (e.g., "I like red wine"). This collection of information about ourselves (which is not necessarily accurate) constitutes the self-concept, a complex knowledge structure stored in long-term memory that includes abstract, summary representations of our own personal characteristics.…”

Understanding Media Enjoyment: The Role of Transportation Into Narrative Worlds

“…It has been argued that stories are the most natural mode of thought (Schank & Abelson, 1995), and similarly, it is likely that the ability to become transported into other worlds is fundamental. The evolutionary underpinnings of transportation may be an outgrowth of individuals' abilities to think about past selves, or the need to construct possible futures and possible selves in order to plan ahead (Leary & Buttermore, 2003). Furthermore, the ease with which individuals relate to story characters may be a natural extension of individuals' need to understand real others in their social world.…”