Sociality and self-awareness in animals

Recognizing one's mirror reflection appears to be a simple task, but beyond humans, few animals have demonstrated this capability. Mirror self-recognition is indicative of self-awareness, which is one's capacity for self-directed knowledge. This theoretical paper examines literature from t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in psychology 2023-01, Vol.13, p.1065638
Main Author: Lei, Yanyu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
animal cognition
mirror test
Psychology
self-awareness
self-recognition
sociality
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Summary:Recognizing one's mirror reflection appears to be a simple task, but beyond humans, few animals have demonstrated this capability. Mirror self-recognition is indicative of self-awareness, which is one's capacity for self-directed knowledge. This theoretical paper examines literature from the past 50 years regarding self-recognition in over 30 species. Animals are classified based on the quantity and quality of research supporting evidence of their self-recognition abilities. Additionally, animals are classified as either social or solitary. It was found that only social animals have consistently demonstrated self-recognition, while solitary species studied so far do not seem to possess this trait. This finding aligns with the social intelligence hypothesis. This paper also reveals a lack of research on solitary species and recommends future studies examine self-recognition in these animals. A meta-analysis quantifying sociality on a numerical scale is also recommended. Given the existing evidence, this article proposes that social animals are more likely to be self-aware than solitary species.
ISSN:1664-1078
1664-1078
DOI:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1065638