The fountain was then hooked up to a large container of juice places outside the enclosure. ![]() ![]() “We installed a button and a concrete fountain into the chimpanzees’ outer enclosures. In that study, chimps showed no special preferences for feeding themselves and a friend over feeding just themselves.Įnter new research and a remote juice fountain. If they chose the latter, it was seen as a prosocial behavior. Some studies show that chimps cooperatively hunt, share food and console each other.īut one highly-cited study came to a very different conclusion: it said, “Chimpanzees are indifferent to the welfare of others.” The study used what’s called a “prosocial choice test”-a controlled lab experiment where chimpanzees in enclosures were given two options: push a button to give food to themselves or push the button to give food to themselves and a partner chimp. Studies of these animals in the wild and captivity seem to come to different conclusions. So far, research has provided mixed results on the question. Their genetic similarities could help us tease out the evolutionary trajectory of the desire to selflessly help others. We’ve learned that it’s a large part of the reason we’ve succeeded as a species.īut a major question remains in science: Are we the only species who do this?Īs one of our closest relatives, chimpanzees have long been studied for signs of this. Caregiving, group coordination, conflict resolution, sharing-humans engage in these types of behaviors all the time. Have you ever done something for someone else-knowing that your actions would solely benefit them and not you? Maybe you opened a door or donated blood or volunteered in a hospital’s ER during the pandemic.
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