%A O’Connor,Sean %D 2020 %J Frontiers in Psychology %C %F %G English %K evolutionary psychology,inner speech,private speech,thought,Language %Q %R 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00163 %W %L %M %P %7 %8 2020-February-18 %9 Hypothesis and Theory %# %! The Natural Selection of Private and Inner Speech %* %< %T The Natural Selection of Private and Inner Speech %U https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00163 %V 11 %0 JOURNAL ARTICLE %@ 1664-1078 %X This article analyzes the emergence of private and inner speech from the perspective of natural selection, arguing that social speech acts as a selection pressure for the emergence of private speech, that private speech acts as a selection pressure that leads to the emergence of inner speech, and that this view of private and inner speech may help to explain the natural selection of a variety of other traits of the human mind in an asymmetric intraspecific evolutionary arms race.