Task design influences prosociality in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).
Chimpanzees confer benefits on group members, both in the wild and in captive populations. Experimental studies of how animals allocate resources can provide useful insights about the motivations underlying prosocial behavior, and understanding the relationship between task design and prosocial beha...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2014-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4156467?pdf=render |
| _version_ | 1828401038990770176 |
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| author | Bailey R House Joan B Silk Susan P Lambeth Steven J Schapiro |
| author_facet | Bailey R House Joan B Silk Susan P Lambeth Steven J Schapiro |
| author_sort | Bailey R House |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Chimpanzees confer benefits on group members, both in the wild and in captive populations. Experimental studies of how animals allocate resources can provide useful insights about the motivations underlying prosocial behavior, and understanding the relationship between task design and prosocial behavior provides an important foundation for future research exploring these animals' social preferences. A number of studies have been designed to assess chimpanzees' preferences for outcomes that benefit others (prosocial preferences), but these studies vary greatly in both the results obtained and the methods used, and in most cases employ procedures that reduce critical features of naturalistic social interactions, such as partner choice. The focus of the current study is on understanding the link between experimental methodology and prosocial behavior in captive chimpanzees, rather than on describing these animals' social motivations themselves. We introduce a task design that avoids isolating subjects and allows them to freely decide whether to participate in the experiment. We explore key elements of the methods utilized in previous experiments in an effort to evaluate two possibilities that have been offered to explain why different experimental designs produce different results: (a) chimpanzees are less likely to deliver food to others when they obtain food for themselves, and (b) evidence of prosociality may be obscured by more "complex" experimental apparatuses (e.g., those including more components or alternative choices). Our results suggest that the complexity of laboratory tasks may generate observed variation in prosocial behavior in laboratory experiments, and highlights the need for more naturalistic research designs while also providing one example of such a paradigm. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-10T09:40:36Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-bd365e6c4cea460f80d2a447f6014393 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-10T09:40:36Z |
| publishDate | 2014-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-bd365e6c4cea460f80d2a447f60143932022-12-22T01:54:01ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032014-01-0199e10342210.1371/journal.pone.0103422Task design influences prosociality in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).Bailey R HouseJoan B SilkSusan P LambethSteven J SchapiroChimpanzees confer benefits on group members, both in the wild and in captive populations. Experimental studies of how animals allocate resources can provide useful insights about the motivations underlying prosocial behavior, and understanding the relationship between task design and prosocial behavior provides an important foundation for future research exploring these animals' social preferences. A number of studies have been designed to assess chimpanzees' preferences for outcomes that benefit others (prosocial preferences), but these studies vary greatly in both the results obtained and the methods used, and in most cases employ procedures that reduce critical features of naturalistic social interactions, such as partner choice. The focus of the current study is on understanding the link between experimental methodology and prosocial behavior in captive chimpanzees, rather than on describing these animals' social motivations themselves. We introduce a task design that avoids isolating subjects and allows them to freely decide whether to participate in the experiment. We explore key elements of the methods utilized in previous experiments in an effort to evaluate two possibilities that have been offered to explain why different experimental designs produce different results: (a) chimpanzees are less likely to deliver food to others when they obtain food for themselves, and (b) evidence of prosociality may be obscured by more "complex" experimental apparatuses (e.g., those including more components or alternative choices). Our results suggest that the complexity of laboratory tasks may generate observed variation in prosocial behavior in laboratory experiments, and highlights the need for more naturalistic research designs while also providing one example of such a paradigm.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4156467?pdf=render |
| spellingShingle | Bailey R House Joan B Silk Susan P Lambeth Steven J Schapiro Task design influences prosociality in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). PLoS ONE |
| title | Task design influences prosociality in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). |
| title_full | Task design influences prosociality in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). |
| title_fullStr | Task design influences prosociality in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). |
| title_full_unstemmed | Task design influences prosociality in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). |
| title_short | Task design influences prosociality in captive chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). |
| title_sort | task design influences prosociality in captive chimpanzees pan troglodytes |
| url | http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4156467?pdf=render |
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