An evolutionary perspective on altercentrism

Putting oneself, mentally, in someone else’s shoes is traditionally considered a late-developing, cognitively demanding skill thought to critically underlie our uniquely human cognition. Recent advances in developmental psychology question this view and instead suggest that from an early age, others’ perspectives profoundly permeate how human children attend to, evaluate, and process inputs: their cognition is altercentric. We investigate whether this mode of cognition may be fundamental not only during ontogeny but also phylogeny, by reviewing evidence for altercentric cognition in human children and using these findings to develop different evolutionary scenarios for the phylogenetic emergence of altercentrism. We test these scenarios with data from nonhuman primates and find that altercentric cognition is widespread. Species differences may exist not so much in the prevalence of altercentrism per se, but rather in its strength and the flexibility to switch between alter- and egocentric perspectives. We conclude by highlighting future directions to corroborate that such a shift in perspective towards altercentrism not only in cognitive development, but also evolution, may be warranted.