ScienceDaily (Mar. 31, 2008) - Chimpanzees make judgments about the actions and dispositions of strangers by observing others' behavior and interactions in different situations. Specifically, chimpanzees show an ability to recognize certain behavioral traits and make assumptions about the presence or absence of these traits in strangers in similar situations thereafter. These findings are by Dr. Francys Subiaul - from the George Washington University in Washington DC - and his team.

Character judgments are an essential feature of cooperative exchanges between humans, and we use them to predict future behavioral interactions. A system for attributing reputation is therefore expected in any species which needs to assess the behavior of others and to predict the outcomes of future interactions. Chimpanzees have sophisticated social skills and there is evidence that primates eavesdrop and benefit from third-party interactions. Could they have a system for forming reputation judgments across a wide variety of contexts like humans?

In a series of three experiments, Dr. Subiaul and colleagues looked at whether chimpanzees learn the reputation of strangers indirectly by observation, or by first-hand experience. Seven chimpanzees observed unfamiliar humans either consistently give (‘generous' donor) or refuse to give (‘selfish' donor) food to either a familiar human recipient or another chimp.

In the first experiment, after observing humans either give or refuse food to familiar humans, chimps were in turn given the opportunity to gesture to either the ‘selfish' or the ‘generous' human. There was no marked preference for either donor. However, in a second experiment, the researchers evaluated whether prolonged observation and first-hand experience would allow chimps to generalize this social rule-pertaining to the reputation of strangers-to new humans. In this experiment, the chimpanzees showed a strong preference for the new generous donor.

They were able to predict which new donor was generous, based entirely on observation. In a third experiment, chimpanzees (rather than humans) were the recipients of either ‘selfish' or ‘generous' acts. The results of this last experiment replicated the results of the second experiment in a new context and using novel ‘generous' and ‘selfish' acts, demonstrated that chimpanzees are flexible and astute social problem-solvers, capable of attributing reputation to strangers by eavesdropping on interactions between others.

The authors conclude that their results demonstrate chimpanzees' ability "to infer stability in an individual's character or behavior over time through observation - an inference that underlies the ability to make reputation judgments...This ability may have served as a catalyst to the evolution of various uniquely human traits such as shared intentionality, language and reasoning."

Journal reference: Subiaul F et al (2008). Do chimpanzees learn reputation by observation? Evidence from direct and indirect experience with generous and selfish strangers.  Animal Cognition (DOI 10.1007/s10071-008-0151-6)

Tko je loš? Čimpanze to shvaćaju s promatranjem

Čimpanze prave sudove o akcijama i namjerama stranaca dok promatraju tuđe ponašanje i međusobne odnose u različitim situacijama. Posebno, čimpanze pokazuju sposobnost da prepoznaju određene osobine ponašanja i prave pretpostavke o prisustvu ili odsustvu istih osobina kod stranaca poslije u sličnim situacijama. Ova otkrića su od Dr. Francys Subiaul s the George Washington University u Washington DC - i njegovog tima.

Sudovi o karakteru su bitna karakteristika u komunikaciji kod ljudi i služimo se njima da bismo predvidjeli buduća ponašanja kod interakcija. Sustav pripisivanja reputacije  je zato očekivan kod svih vrsta koje trebaju procijeniti ponašanja drugih i predvidjeti buduće interakcije. Čimpanze imaju sofisticirane socijalne vještine i postoji dokaz da primati osluškuju i imaju koristi od interakcija. Da li oni imaju sustav za formiranje sudova o časti kroz široki izbor objašnjenja kao ljudi?

U nizu od 3 eksperimenata, Dr Subiaul i suradnici su motrili da li čimpanze uče o časti stranaca indirektno s ponašanjem ili iz svojeg "na prvu ruku" iskustva. Sedam čimpanza su promatrali nepoznate ljude ili kako dosljedno daju ( velikodušni donori) ili odbijaju dati ( sebični donori) hranu ili poznatim ljudskim sudionicima ili drugoj čimpanzi.

U prvom eksperimentu poslije promatranja ljudi kako daju ili odbijaju dati hranu poznatim ljudima, čimpanzama je bila naizmjence dana prilika da se kreću ili darežljivim ili sebičnim ljudima. Nije bilo označene prednosti za bilo kojeg donora. Ipak, u drugom eksperimentu , istraživaći su procijenili da li dugotrajno promatranje ili iskustvo iz prve ruke bi dopustilo čimpanzama da uopće ovo društveno pravilo - pripadajući časti stranaca - do novih ljudi . U ovom eksperimentu čimpanze su pokazale jaku prednost za nove velikodušne donore.

Mogle su predvidjeti koji novi donor će biti velikodušan, sveukupno bazirano na promatranju. U trećem eksperimentu samo čimpanze su bile sudionici eksperimenta sebičnih i velikodušnih činova. Rezultati zadnjeg eksperimenta su uzvratili rezultate drugog eksperimenta u novom kontekstu i koristeći velikodušne i sebične akcije, pokazale da čimpanze jesu fleksibilne i pronicljivi rješavatelji socijalnih problema , sposobne da pripišu reputaciju strancima, samo promatrajući njihove interakcije s drugima.

Autori su zaključili da ovi rezultati pokazuju sposobnost čimpanza da zaključe postojanost individualnog karaktera i ponašanja tijekom vremena kroz promatranje  - zaključak ispod kojeg leži sposobnost da se rade sudovi o časti. Ova sposobnost može služiti kao katalizator evolucije različitih jedinstvenih osobina ljudi kao što su zajednička intencionalnost, jezik i izlaganja.  

Prijevod - Kristina Zolota