Gallup's Mirrors: More Than an Operationalization of Self-Awareness in Primates?

Abstract

This speculative article comments on Gallup's work on self-recognition and self-awareness in primates. It exposes Gallup's position on the social origin of the self-concept and proposes the existence of “self-representational” processes capable of reproducing internally the social phenomena implicated in the acquisition of self-information. On that basis, the possibility is raised that allowing primates to see themselves in a mirror might provide them with such a process, with which introspection, and consequently, the formation of a more sophisticated self-concept, would be possible.