The benefits of an evolutionary framework for the investigation of teaching behaviour: Emphasis should be taken off humans as a benchmark

Abstract

We agree with Kline that a lack of unification is preventing progress in understanding the occurrence of teaching behaviour and the selective pressures influencing its presence. However, we feel that the proposed framework, which incorporates mentalistic and cultural approaches, continues to overlook cases of teaching in nonhuman animals. We advocate the comparative functionalist framework to identify the proximate causes of teaching behaviour in both humans and other animals.