Beyond the justification hypothesis: a broader theory of the evolution of self-consciousness.

We evaluate Henriques' Justification Hypothesis (JH; this issue) and argue that his explanation for the evolution of self-consciousness is overly narrow and the evolutionary sequence of events is backwards. Instead, we propose a broader theory of the evolution of self-consciousness, with four categories of adaptive functions: (a) self-regulation, (b) selective information processing, (c) understanding others, and (d) identity formation.