Mind-reading display as the basic goal of human communication

What is it about?

This paper lays out a theoretical viewpoint that argues that human communication evolved to display our mind-reading abilities to one another. In language, we do this by being creative, humorous, verbally fluent and intelligent amongst other ways. We show ourselves to be good mind-readers by highlighting links between concepts in the minds of the people we communicate with and combine them in creative ways. In effect, we are saying "I know your mind so well that I can make you aware of links between ideas in your mind that you haven't yet realised exist". By displaying ourselves to be good mind-readers we are showing that we can be socio-politically astute and are likely to be good at climbing up the social ladder – that makes us attractive as relationship partners, friends and social allies. Display is one aspect of human communication, however, to be good at displaying we must also devote a lot of time to listening and learning about what is likely to be in the minds of the other people in our social group. We must align our minds with their minds. A lot of human communication is devoted to this alignment style of communication and we spend a lifetime learning about our languages, cultures and fashions. We are motivated to learn and curious about our cultures – we are driven to be aware of current trends and gossip so that we have the latest information that is likely to be of interest to others in our social group. Displays can also be non-verbal – we can show we are aware of the minds of others by being kind and understanding, and collaborating and cooperating with others. Gift-giving and empathy show we know other desires and feelings in what can seem like altruism but can equally be thought of as self-interested displays of mind-reading ability. The theory largely combines two previous theoretical views of the social brain hypothesis and mental fitenss indicators.

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Why is it important?

The theory shows how two previously competing views of the social brain hypothesis and mental fitness indicators can be combined. It presents an alternative to thinking about human communication as being motivated by providing useful information to one another – replacing it with a less problem-solving and more socially oriented view of communication. It also shows how seemingly altruistic​ behaviour can be self-interested.