Empathy in chimpanzees: Evidence for theory of mind?

O'Connell, Sanjida

doi:10.1007/bf02382862

Cited by 85 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…Our findings might be interpreted as contradictory to claims that chimpanzees show compassion and empathy for those in distress (O'Connell 1995;Flack & de Waal 2000;Preston & de Waal 2002;but see Silk 2007) and inconsistent with recent evidence that chimpanzees provide instrumental help to humans and group members (Warneken & Tomasello 2006;Warneken et al 2007). However, it is possible that other-regarding sentiments are not activated when food is present because food is the object of intense competition in chimpanzees' natural environment (Warneken & Tomasello 2006).…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 98%

Chimpanzees do not take advantage of very low cost opportunities to deliver food to unrelated group members

et al. 2008

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We conducted experiments on two populations of chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, to determine whether they would take advantage of opportunities to provide food rewards to familiar group members at little cost to themselves. In both of the experiments described here, chimpanzees were able to deliver identical rewards to themselves and to other members of their social groups. We compared the chimpanzees' behaviour when they were paired with another chimpanzee and when they were alone. If chimpanzees are motivated to provide benefits to others, they are expected to consistently deliver rewards to others and to distinguish between the partner-present and partnerabsent conditions. Results from both experiments indicate that our subjects were largely indifferent to the benefits they could provide to others. They were less likely to provide rewards to potential recipients as the experiment progressed, and all but one of the 18 subjects were as likely to deliver rewards to an empty enclosure as to an enclosure housing another chimpanzee. These results, in conjunction with similar results obtained in previous experiments, suggest that chimpanzees are not motivated by prosocial sentiments to provide food rewards to other group members. HHS Public Access Author Manuscript Author ManuscriptAuthor Manuscript Author ManuscriptHumans participate in a range of activities that benefit others. These behaviours range from simple acts of courtesy (holding the door for shoppers laden with packages) to modest forms of charity (sending money to victims of hurricane Katrina) and extraordinary feats of heroism (firefighters taking great risks to rescue victims of the 9/11 bombings). These activities are all prosocial because they benefit others, and some are altruistic because donors incur costs and receive no direct benefit themselves when they provide benefits to others. In many cases, the actors are unknown to the beneficiaries, thus eliminating the possibility of future reciprocity. In this paper, we consider whether chimpanzees take advantage of very low cost opportunities to behave prosocially towards conspecifics.In an effort to gain insight about the origin and evolution of other-regarding preferences in humans, we conducted a series of experiments on chimpanzees. We focus on chimpanzees for a number of reasons. First, chimpanzees are our closest living relatives (Glazko & Nei 2003). The absence of other-regarding preferences in chimpanzees would suggest that these preferences (and possibly reputational concerns) are derived properties of humans that evolved after Homo and Pan diverged. Conversely, the presence of other-regarding preferences in chimpanzees would indicate that the foundation for prosocial behaviour existed before the human and ape lineages diverged and was elaborated within the human lineage.Second, chimpanzees may share some of the cognitive capacities and moral sentiments that underlie prosocial behaviour in humans. Chimpanzees sometimes console victims of aggression (de Waal & van Roosmalen 1979), which...

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 98%

Chimpanzees do not take advantage of very low cost opportunities to deliver food to unrelated group members

et al. 2008

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“…Although these results might appear to validate observational reports of chimpanzees showing empathy for others [39], further studies will be necessary to elucidate whether helping behaviour in chimpanzees is driven by empathy with the emotional states of the others, as in the case of human infants and adults [40,41]. It is important to emphasize that we cannot conclude whether or not chimpanzees have a concern for the long-term welfare of others such as humans are capable of.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 58%

Chimpanzees help conspecifics obtain food and non-food items

et al. 2010

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Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) sometimes help both humans and conspecifics in experimental situations in which immediate selfish benefits can be ruled out. However, in several experiments, chimpanzees have not provided food to a conspecific even when it would cost them nothing, leading to the hypothesis that prosociality in the food-provisioning context is a derived trait in humans. Here, we show that chimpanzees help conspecifics obtain both food and non-food items-given that the donor cannot get the food herself. Furthermore, we show that the key factor eliciting chimpanzees' targeted helping is the recipients' attempts to either get the food or get the attention of the potential donor. The current findings add to the accumulating body of evidence that humans and chimpanzees share the motivation and skills necessary to help others in situations in which they cannot selfishly benefit. Humans, however, show prosocial motives more readily and in a wider range of contexts.

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“…There are also anecdotal reports of apes helping unfamiliar birds and humans, sometimes even incurring great risk to do so (e.g. O'Connell, 1995). It is likely that the feeling of familiarity itself results from a facile mapping of object onto subject, which can result from overt similarity (e.g.…”

Section: Shared Emotional Experience and Similar Emotionmentioning

confidence: 99%