(Image source: Devyn Carter / ScienceNOW)
BY STEVEN SPARKMAN
You're watching multsource science news analysis from Newsy.
Are you nicer than a chimpanzee? A new study puts to rest the idea that chimps are selfish creatures, by showing they demonstrate altruism -- just like humans do.
Field researchers say they see chimps being altruistic in the wild all the time, but lab tests have mostly shown chimps to be selfish. To reconcile this, Emory University researchers designed a simple food study. (Video source: ARKive)
Chimps were given tokens they could give the researchers in exchange for treats.
One color of token resulted in the chimp getting a treat for herself -- but not a chimp that was looking on. The other color got them both something. The New York Times reports the results. (Image source: ScienceNOW)
“If chimpanzees didn’t care about the welfare of other chimpanzees ... they’d pick both colors equally often. That’s not what happened. All of the chimpanzees were more likely to pick the generous color ... The scientists also ran control sessions, in which the chimpanzees got food only for themselves, no matter which color they chose. In these control sessions, they had no bias in their choice of colors.”
The researchers say this is the first study where chimps have shown altruism in an experiment. LiveScience explains -- the trouble wasn’t with chimps -- but how the previous studies were set up.
“It turns out this past failure to find such altruistic behavior might have been due to the experiments on the chimpanzees themselves. … In addition to using complex food-delivery systems, past experiments often placed the chimpanzees so far apart that they might not have realized how their actions benefited others.”
The study also shed some light on how to get a chimp to share with you. According to the Daily Express, the best tactic -- don’t be too pushy!
“They were especially generous towards partners who either waited patiently or gently drew attention to themselves. But the females were much less likely to share with partners who made a fuss, begged or spat water at them.”
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