Chimpanzees Help, But Only When Asked

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Hi, I'm Jess, and I'm 22. I live out in the English countryside.

I love all animals, but I've always had a soft spot for Primates.

I have a diploma in Primatology, and another in Zoology. I have a BA (Hons) degree in Media, which I wish I'd never done.

I have recently become a voluntary Ambassador for Wild Futures, a UK based primate charity and sanctuary.

I'm also a huge Potterhead, and would have studied Care of Magical Creatures at NEWT level if only my letter hadn't gotten lost in the Muggle post.

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February 18, 2012

Chimpanzees Help, But Only When Asked

Chimpanzees have a bad reputation. Maybe it’s because humans have a thing about wanting to feel unique among primates. Some have argued that humans are the only species that truly behaves altruistically, the only species that actively helps out other individuals even when there is no direct benefit. Despite mounting evidence that other animals, including non-human primates, have various forms of theory of mind, many still believe that human altruism exists because we – and we alone among all the animal kingdom – can understand the goals of others. Or, if there are other animals that can understand the goals of others, perhaps we somehow do it more readily.

In a new paper just published in PNAS, primatologist Shinya Yamamotoa and colleagues point out that while chimpanzees are known to help others, they don’t usually help when it would mean giving up things like food, even if they’ve got more food than they need. Even between a mother and her infant!

Why do chimpanzees seem so reluctant to help others? One possible explanation is that they’re unable to understand the goals of another individual, resulting in an inability to create any sort of shared intentionality between two individuals. To that end, the researchers write, “many still believe that humans are unique in this respect because we are the only animal species endowed with unique ‘theory of mind’ abilities enabling us to understand the goals and to share the intentions of others.”

Yamamotoa and the other researchers set up an experiment designed explicitly to address this possibility. The first chimpanzee was given a task to accomplish in order to receive a juice reward. The task required the use of one of two types of tools: a stick or a straw. The stick and the straw, however, as well as five other items were found not in the first chimpanzee’s booth, but in the second chimp’s booth. There was a small opening between the two booths where the second chimp could pass the necessary tool to the first. By itself, this could test whether or not the second chimp was willing to help the first chimp.

But to see whether the ability to understand the goal of another individual modulates the potential to help, the researchers created two further conditions: half the time, the barrier separating the two booths was a transparent window, and half the time it was a completely opaque wall. If chimpanzees modulate their responses to a help request based on whether or not they can see the goal of another individual, then they should give the appropriate tool more often when in the transparent window condition.

During the transparent window condition, the chimpanzees were more likely to offer up the appropriate tool (e.g. a stick during the stick condition, or a straw during the straw condition) than any of the other tools. This result itself shows that the chimpanzees were able to understand which tool their partner would need in order to solve a given task. Importantly, ninety percent of tool offers occurred only after a request was given by the first chimpanzee, suggesting that while chimpanzees may not spontaneously engage in helping behaviors, direct requests are effective in soliciting assistance.