Bonobos choose to share food with strangers over acquaintances, but only in return for their company.
This remarkable result may seem strange at first to us at first. Think
about when you have gum. Suddenly everyone's trying to be your best
friend, and typically people would prefer to share with their friend
than a stranger. According to these results, however, bonobos don't
think about it the same way you do -
they share food in return for social interaction from unfamiliar
bonobos, apparently increasing their social contacts.
This
result comes from a series of experiments. In the first, a bonobo with a
pile of food was placed in any enclosure joined by two other enclosures
(one holding an acquaintance, the other a stranger). It could choose to
be joined by one ape, both or neither. The majority let in the
stranger. If the familiar chimp was invited to join the test subject and
the stranger, it was usually let in by the stranger!
The
second series focused on how motivated bonobos were by social
interaction. Here, the test subject couldn't interact with another
bonobo or get any food themselves. However, they could open the door to
let the other bonobo get food. 9 out of 10 chose to help the stranger.
In the final experiment, the test bonobo possessed food. They could
choose to give some of it away to another bonobo, but they would not get
social interaction regardless or whether they shared or not. Here, the
apes chose not to share - if they couldn't have social interaction,
there seemed to be no point giving away their food.
The team
believe their results show the value of generosity, and suggest that
this behaviour may have evolved as a way of expanding social networks.
It's a striking difference with humans - though we may share with
strangers, we typically prefer to share with groupmates. This xenophilia
contrasts even more with chimpanzees, who often seriously injure or
even kill strangers.
“Like chimpanzees, our species would kill
strangers; like bonobos, we could also be very nice to strangers,” said
Jingzhi Tan (Duke University, North Carolina, and lead author) in a
statement. “Our results highlight the importance of studying bonobos to
fully understand the origins of such human behaviors."
To read the paper, click here: http://bit.ly/ZVgGLS
Photo credit: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters.
Read more:
http://phys.org/news/
http://www.eurekalert.org/
http://
Bonobos choose to share food with strangers over acquaintances, but only in return for their company.
This remarkable result may seem strange at first to us at first. Think about when you have gum. Suddenly everyone's trying to be your best friend, and typically people would prefer to share with their friend than a stranger. According to these results, however, bonobos don't think about it the same way you do - they share food in return for social interaction from unfamiliar bonobos, apparently increasing their social contacts.
This result comes from a series of experiments. In the first, a bonobo with a pile of food was placed in any enclosure joined by two other enclosures (one holding an acquaintance, the other a stranger). It could choose to be joined by one ape, both or neither. The majority let in the stranger. If the familiar chimp was invited to join the test subject and the stranger, it was usually let in by the stranger!
The second series focused on how motivated bonobos were by social interaction. Here, the test subject couldn't interact with another bonobo or get any food themselves. However, they could open the door to let the other bonobo get food. 9 out of 10 chose to help the stranger.
In the final experiment, the test bonobo possessed food. They could choose to give some of it away to another bonobo, but they would not get social interaction regardless or whether they shared or not. Here, the apes chose not to share - if they couldn't have social interaction, there seemed to be no point giving away their food.
The team believe their results show the value of generosity, and suggest that this behaviour may have evolved as a way of expanding social networks. It's a striking difference with humans - though we may share with strangers, we typically prefer to share with groupmates. This xenophilia contrasts even more with chimpanzees, who often seriously injure or even kill strangers.
“Like chimpanzees, our species would kill strangers; like bonobos, we could also be very nice to strangers,” said Jingzhi Tan (Duke University, North Carolina, and lead author) in a statement. “Our results highlight the importance of studying bonobos to fully understand the origins of such human behaviors."
To read the paper, click here: http://bit.ly/ZVgGLS
Photo credit: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters.
Read more:
http://phys.org/news/
http://www.eurekalert.org/
http://
This remarkable result may seem strange at first to us at first. Think about when you have gum. Suddenly everyone's trying to be your best friend, and typically people would prefer to share with their friend than a stranger. According to these results, however, bonobos don't think about it the same way you do - they share food in return for social interaction from unfamiliar bonobos, apparently increasing their social contacts.
This result comes from a series of experiments. In the first, a bonobo with a pile of food was placed in any enclosure joined by two other enclosures (one holding an acquaintance, the other a stranger). It could choose to be joined by one ape, both or neither. The majority let in the stranger. If the familiar chimp was invited to join the test subject and the stranger, it was usually let in by the stranger!
The second series focused on how motivated bonobos were by social interaction. Here, the test subject couldn't interact with another bonobo or get any food themselves. However, they could open the door to let the other bonobo get food. 9 out of 10 chose to help the stranger.
In the final experiment, the test bonobo possessed food. They could choose to give some of it away to another bonobo, but they would not get social interaction regardless or whether they shared or not. Here, the apes chose not to share - if they couldn't have social interaction, there seemed to be no point giving away their food.
The team believe their results show the value of generosity, and suggest that this behaviour may have evolved as a way of expanding social networks. It's a striking difference with humans - though we may share with strangers, we typically prefer to share with groupmates. This xenophilia contrasts even more with chimpanzees, who often seriously injure or even kill strangers.
“Like chimpanzees, our species would kill strangers; like bonobos, we could also be very nice to strangers,” said Jingzhi Tan (Duke University, North Carolina, and lead author) in a statement. “Our results highlight the importance of studying bonobos to fully understand the origins of such human behaviors."
To read the paper, click here: http://bit.ly/ZVgGLS
Photo credit: Goran Tomasevic/Reuters.
Read more:
http://phys.org/news/
http://www.eurekalert.org/
http://
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