Homophily: The Reason for our Big Brains
https://www.fastcoexist.com/3063191/did-humans-big-brains-evolve-to-make-us-better-at-sizing-each-other-up
The reason that we humans have been able to climb to the top of the food chain and conquer this planet is because of our large and complex brains. The reason as to why we evolved to have such superior intelligence has been pondered by the scientific community for hundreds of years. Now, scientists believe that humans’ inherent sociality may have something to do with it. Humans are incredibly social creatures and the species has succeeded because of its ability to function in a society and cooperate. Scientists believe that forming societies and networks involves a lot of complex cognitive function that, over time, resulted in rapid growth and evolution of the human brain. This is the reason that human’s are so good at sizing one another up and figuring out personalities and tendencies quickly and easily. This is called “aspirational homophily,” the desire to be like other members of your group.
Homophily is discussed in chapter 4 of our textbook, and defined as the principle that we tend to be similar to our friends. It is interesting to think about how being social helps us not only in our everyday small networks, but also has helped us tremendously evolutionarily. In today’s world, being social helps in you in terms of creating a larger network for yourself which leads to more connections and opportunities. In the past, being social helped us by leading us to be the most advanced and intelligent species in the world. I never before thought about humans’ sociality being such an important part to their survival. The innumerable networks that have been created over time have served us great purpose.