Hi guys. This is a preview of my next research video regarding my questions on the human
self-domestication hypothesis. Human brain size has increased dramatically from archaic hominins
who evolved for over 3 million years. Most believe our brain volume and brain to body
mass ratio must be the highest now since humans built this incredible modern civilization.
However, scientists have discovered a surprising reversal in our species: that in contrast to much
of hominin evolution, there have been significant reductions to brain mass over the past 50,000
years. Our brains are now the smallest they have been at any time in the past 100,000 years,
over 10% smaller. At the same time, our encephalization, brain size relative to body mass,
also declined – one of the papers states that our encephalization is about 17% lower.
Please note that encephalization has a close relationship with intelligence. So,
for 3 million years, human species had consistently grown larger brains,
but for the last 100k years our cranial sizes have been declining. How did that happen?
There are different theories on why our brain size declined. Self-domestication is
a prominent one which receives more publicity. In essence, the self-domestication hypothesis
is claiming that just like we domesticate sheep, pigs, and cattle, we domesticate ourselves.
This proposal is built upon two of the main characteristics observed in domesticated animals:
1. reduced brain sizes and 2. tamer temperament. Some scientists propose that with the decreased
brain size, people became tamer and less aggressive so they can work with each other.
I have a few questions on this hypothesis. For example, where do we draw the line between being
self-domesticated and natural animal teamwork. The closest primates to us are chimpanzees and bonobos
and they live in communities with over 100 individuals. Other animals such as lions, hyenas,
elephants, dolphins and whales live in packs or groups too. These animals are not
considered to be "self-domesticated" yet they rely on teamwork as well.
Do animals really need to be “domesticated” to be able to work with one another? Seems unlikely.
Studies prove that domesticated animals have smaller brains and lower encephalization quotient
EQ. Many researchers found that wild and feral animals are smarter and more aggressive with
larger brains than domesticated counterparts. The wild animals have about the same brain size
as their wild ancestors. Another observation made by scientists is that fighting bulls,
which are raised to be aggressive, also have much larger brains than domesticated dairy cattle.
These fighting bulls have about the same brain size as their feral predecessors.
So tamer domesticated animals have smaller brains and encephalization while the aggressive ones
even though they interact with humans their brain sizes are not affected.
My question is this – are the same phenomenon also true with humans? Are more aggressive people
in general smarter than tame and docile people? Talking about aggressive people,
you might think of psychopaths who are usually depicted as highly intelligent,
manipulative evil geniuses in books and films. But what if this is a misconception created by pop
culture to be dramatic and entertaining? I will be discussing these and more in my following video.
Now let’s talk about something else. I heard from quite a few of you guys that even though
you subscribed to my channel and turned on the notification bell button, you still don’t
see my new videos on your feeds. Sometimes I see comments going missing including my own replies.
I’m not sure why this happens but it seems to be an issue for many of us. I hope it has
nothing to do with censorship or shadow-banning. Regardless if you don’t see my videos popping up
please check in with my channel every once in a while.
I usually publish a new video every 2-3 weeks. I’ll try to upload more frequently.
I received thoughtful advice from you on how to help my channel grow. Thank you very much for
the support. I’ve read on YouTube, quantity trumps quality wherein a channel with more uploads will
automatically get promoted more often. As some of you know, this Curious Being channel is my
personal project. I’m the only one doing the research, writing the narratives, recording,
filming and making production work. From the day I started this journey, I planned to make each
of my videos thought-provoking with original fact-based viewpoints. My work takes a lot of
time and effort. I hope you enjoy the content I create. If so, please share my videos with others,
leave comments and interact with other commentators. This will help my channel grow,
thrive and reach more people. You can also support me on Patreon. Thanks for the
information and insights you’ve shared – I’m most grateful for your enthusiasm. I’ll see you soon.