Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 28, 2026

A Modified Mirror Test as a Visual Guide for the Self-awareness Trait in Wild Antarctica Penguins, Pygoscelis adeliae
Published on: July 8, 2025
Self-awareness and the evolution of social intelligence
1Department of Psychology, State University of New York, Albany, New York 12222, USA.
Abstract:
The use of one's own experience as a model to make inferences about the experiences of others is theorized to be the means by which a variety of introspectively based social strategies developed for both competing and cooperating with one another (e.g. gratitude, grudging, sympathy, empathy, deception, pretending and sorrow). The proposition that this ability is a byproduct of self-awareness is developed in some detail and the predictions which follow from this model of social intelligence are considered in light of the evidence.
Related Concept Videos
Self-Awareness and Its Effects
The Sense of Self: Reflected Self-Appraisal and Social Comparison
Self-Schemas
Social Foundations of Self II: The Generalized Other
Social Foundations of Self III: Self-Evaluation
Introspection

