Bonobos Share with Strangers
نویسندگان
چکیده
Humans are thought to possess a unique proclivity to share with others--including strangers. This puzzling phenomenon has led many to suggest that sharing with strangers originates from human-unique language, social norms, warfare and/or cooperative breeding. However, bonobos, our closest living relative, are highly tolerant and, in the wild, are capable of having affiliative interactions with strangers. In four experiments, we therefore examined whether bonobos will voluntarily donate food to strangers. We show that bonobos will forego their own food for the benefit of interacting with a stranger. Their prosociality is in part driven by unselfish motivation, because bonobos will even help strangers acquire out-of-reach food when no desirable social interaction is possible. However, this prosociality has its limitations because bonobos will not donate food in their possession when a social interaction is not possible. These results indicate that other-regarding preferences toward strangers are not uniquely human. Moreover, language, social norms, warfare and cooperative breeding are unnecessary for the evolution of xenophilic sharing. Instead, we propose that prosociality toward strangers initially evolves due to selection for social tolerance, allowing the expansion of individual social networks. Human social norms and language may subsequently extend this ape-like social preference to the most costly contexts.
منابع مشابه
Bonobos Prefer Individuals that Hinder Others over Those that Help.
Humans closely monitor others' cooperative relationships [1, 2]. Children and adults willingly incur costs to reward helpers and punish non-helpers-even as bystanders [3-5]. Already by 3 months, infants favor individuals that they observe helping others [6-8]. This early-emerging prosocial preference may be a derived motivation that accounts for many human forms of cooperation that occur beyond...
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