Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T13:57:27.613Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

16 - Social Cooperation in Primates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2022

Bennett L. Schwartz
Affiliation:
Florida International University
Michael J. Beran
Affiliation:
Georgia State University
Get access

Summary

Although cooperation is widespread from amoebas to humans, the underlying mechanisms are still not well understood, which precludes a full understanding of how cooperation evolved, particularly the complex forms seen in both nonhuman and human primates. The diversity of forms and expressions of cooperation seen across species complicates this, a challenge that has been addressed empirically with studies of cooperation into the lab, where similar methods can be used across species, allowing us to determine what mechanisms are, or are not, shared across species. In the case of cooperation, these methods include joint-action tasks (such as the cooperative barpull) and economic games. With data from standardized lab tests, we can make predictions about how each species should respond in more species-typical, natural contexts. This process allows us to understand not only when mechanisms are shared that might not be obvious (i.e., because they manifest in different ways), but when similar outcomes are underpinned by dissimilar mechanisms. For instance, many primates coordinate, but results from economic games suggest that they do so using a variety of different mechanisms. In addition, we can use these results to identify situations in which cognitive abilities are present, but may not manifest, and to look for the environmental pressures that may inhibit their expression. For example, chimpanzees show evidence of many of the mechanisms necessary for trade and barter, but they do not manifest in all contexts, possibly due to the absence of third-party enforcement mechanisms. Ultimately, understanding cooperation requires recognizing the interplay between cognitive mechanisms and ecology, such that we identify not only how and in what contexts other primates cooperate, but also those situations in which primates do not cooperate, but might be expected to. In so doing, we also move closer to understanding both how humans cooperate, and why it sometimes breaks down so spectacularly.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2022

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Addessi, E., Beran, M. J., Bourgeois-Gironde, S., Brosnan, S. F., & Leca, J. B. (2020). Are the roots of human economic systems shared with non-human primates? Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 109, 115.Google Scholar
Asakawa-Haas, K., Schiestl, M., Bugnyar, T., & Massen, J. J. M. (2016). Partner choice in raven (Corvus corax) cooperation. PLoS ONE, 11, e0156962.Google Scholar
Baldovino, M. C., & Di Bitetti, M. S. (2008). Allonursing in tufted capuchin monkeys (Cebus nigritus): Milk or pacifier? Folia Primatologica, 79, 7992.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barrett, L., Henzi, S. P., Weingrill, T., Lycett, J. E., & Hill, R. A. (1999). Market forces predict grooming reciprocity in female baboons. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 266, 665670.Google Scholar
Beran, M. J., & Parrish, A. E. (2021). Non-human primate token use shows possibilities but also limitations for establishing a form of currency. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376), 20190675.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bethell, E., Whiten, A., Muhumaza, G., & Kakura, J. (2000). Active plant food division and sharing by wild chimpanzees. Primate Report, 56, 6770.Google Scholar
Boesch, C. (1994). Cooperative hunting in wild chimpanzees. Animal Behaviour, 48, 653667.Google Scholar
Boesch, C. (2002). Cooperative hunting roles among Tai chimpanzees. Human Nature, 13, 2746.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Boesch, C., & Boesch, H. (1989). Hunting behavior of wild chimpanzees in the Taï National Park. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 78, 547573.Google Scholar
Boinski, S. (1993). Vocal coordination of troop movement among white-faced capuchin monkeys, Cebus capucinus. American Journal of Primatology, 30, 85100.Google Scholar
Boinski, S., Sughrue, K., Selvaggi, L., Quatrone, R., Henry, M., & Cropp, S. (2002). An expanded test of the ecological model of primate social evolution: Competitive regimes and female bonding in three species of squirrel monkeys (Saimiri oerstedii, S. boliviensis, and S. sciureus). Behaviour, 139, 227261.Google Scholar
Borgeaud, C., & Bshary, R. (2015). Wild vervet monkeys trade tolerance and specific coalitionary support for grooming in experimentally induced conflicts. Current Biology, 25, 30113016.Google Scholar
Brosnan, S. F. (2011). Property in nonhuman primates. New Directions for Child and Adolescent Development, 2011, 922.Google Scholar
Brosnan, S. F. (2018). Insights into human cooperation from comparative economics. Nature Human Behaviour, 2, 432434.Google Scholar
Brosnan, S. F. (2021). What behavior in economic games tells us about the evolution of non-human species’ economic decision-making behavior? Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 376(1819), 20190670.Google Scholar
Brosnan, S. F., & Beran, M. J. (2009). Trading behavior between conspecifics in chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 123, 181194.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brosnan, S. F., Beran, M. J., Parrish, A. E., Price, S. A., & Wilson, B. J. (2013). Comparative approaches to studying strategy: Towards an evolutionary account of primate decision making. Evolutionary Psychology, 11, 147470491301100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brosnan, S. F., & de Waal, F. B. (2002). A proximate perspective on reciprocal altruism. Human Nature, 13, 129152.Google Scholar
Brosnan, S. F., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2004a). A concept of value during experimental exchange in brown capuchin monkeys. Folia Primatologica, 75, 317330.Google Scholar
Brosnan, S. F., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2004b). Socially learned preferences for differentially rewarded tokens in the brown capuchin monkey (cebus apella). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 118, 133139.Google Scholar
Brosnan, S. F., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2005). A simple ability to barter in chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes. Primates, 46, 173182.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brosnan, S. F., Freeman, C., & De Waal, F. B. M. (2006). Partner’s behavior, not reward distribution, determines success in an unequal cooperative task in capuchin monkeys. American Journal of Primatology, 68, 713724.Google Scholar
Brosnan, S. F., Hopper, L. M., Richey, S., Freeman, H. D., Talbot, C. F., Gosling, S. D., Lambeth, S. P., & Schapiro, S. J. (2015). Personality influences responses to inequity and contrast in chimpanzees. Animal Behaviour, 101, 7587.Google Scholar
Brosnan, S. F., Parrish, A., Beran, M. J., Flemming, T., Heimbauer, L., Talbot, C. F., Lambeth, S. P., Schapiro, S. J., & Wilson, B. J. (2011). Responses to the Assurance game in monkeys, apes, and humans using equivalent procedures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 108, 34423447.Google Scholar
Brosnan, S. F., Price, S. A., Leverett, K., Prétôt, L., Beran, M., & Wilson, B. J. (2017). Human and monkey responses in a symmetric game of conflict with asymmetric equilibria. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 142, 293306.Google Scholar
Brosnan, S. F., Silk, J. B., Henrich, J., Mareno, M. C., Lambeth, S. P., & Schapiro, S. J. (2009). Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) do not develop contingent reciprocity in an experimental task. Animal Cognition, 12, 587597.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brosnan, S. F., Wilson, B. J., & Beran, M. J. (2012). Old World monkeys are more similar to humans than New World monkeys when playing a coordination game. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 279, 15221530.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brotcorne, F., Giraud, G., Gunst, N., Fuentes, A., Wandia, I. N., Beudels-Jamar, R. C., Poncin, P., Huynen, M.-C., & Leca, J.-B. (2017). Intergroup variation in robbing and bartering by long-tailed macaques at Uluwatu Temple (Bali, Indonesia). Primates, 58, 505516.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bshary, R., Hohner, A., Ait-el-Djoudi, K., & Fricke, H. (2006). Interspecific communicative and coordinated hunting between groupers and giant moray eels in the Red Sea. PLoS Biology, 4, e431.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bullinger, A. F., Wyman, E., Melis, A. P., & Tomasello, M. (2011). Coordination of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in a Stag Hunt Game. International Journal of Primatology, 32, 12961310.Google Scholar
Campbell, M. W., Watzek, J., Suchak, M., Berman, S. M., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2020). Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) tolerate some degree of inequity while cooperating but refuse to donate effort for nothing. American Journal of Primatology, 82, e23084.Google Scholar
Chalmeau, R., Lardeux, K., Brandibas, P., & Gallo, A. (1997). Cooperative problem solving by orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). International Journal of Primatology, 18, 2332.Google Scholar
Chalmeau, R., Visalberghi, E., & Gallo, A. (1997). Capuchin monkeys, Cebus apella, fail to understand a cooperative task. Animal Behaviour, 54, 12151225.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cheney, D. L., & Seyfarth, R. M. (1992). How monkeys see the world: Inside the mind of another species. University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Clements, K. C., & Stephens, D. W. (1995). Testing models of non-kin cooperation: Mutualism and the Prisoner’s Dilemma. Animal Behaviour, 50, 527535.Google Scholar
Crawford, M. (1937). The cooperative solving of problems by young chimpanzees. Comparative Psychology Monographs, 14, 188.Google Scholar
de Waal, F. B. M. (1985). Coalitions in monkeys and apes. In Coalition formation (Vol. 24, pp. 127). Elsevier.Google Scholar
de Waal, F. B. M. (1997). The chimpanzee’s service economy: Food for grooming. Evolution and Human Behavior, 18, 375386.Google Scholar
de Waal, F. B. M. (2000). Attitudinal reciprocity in food sharing among brown capuchin monkeys. Animal Behavior, 60, 253261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
de Waal, F. B. M. (2017). Are we smart enough to know how smart animals are?Google Scholar
de Waal, F. B. M., & Berger, M. L. (2000). Payment for labour in monkeys. Nature, 404, 563563.Google Scholar
de Waal, F. B. M., & Davis, J. M. (2003). Capuchin cognitive ecology: Cooperation based on projected returns. Neuropsychologia, 4, 221228.Google Scholar
Di Bitetti, M. S. (1997). Evidence for an important social role of allogrooming in a platyrrhine primate. Animal Behaviour, 54, 199211.Google Scholar
Dufour, V., Pele, M., Neumann, M., Thierry, B., & Call, J. (2009). Calculated reciprocity after all: Computation behind token transfers in orang-utans. Biology Letters, 5, 172175.Google Scholar
Dugatkin, L. A. (1997). Cooperation among animals: An evolutionary perspective. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Duguid, S., Wyman, E., Bullinger, A. F., Herfurth-Majstorovic, K., & Tomasello, M. (2014). Coordination strategies of chimpanzees and human children in a Stag Hunt game. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281, 20141973.Google Scholar
Fragaszy, D. M., Visalberghi, E., & Fedigan, L. M. (2004). The complete capuchin: The biology of the genus Cebus. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Fruth, B., & Hohmann, G. (2018). Food sharing across borders: First observation of intercommunity meat sharing by Bonobos at LuiKotale, DRC. Human Nature, 29, 91103.Google Scholar
Gilby, I. C., Emery Thompson, M., Ruane, J. D., & Wrangham, R. (2010). No evidence of short-term exchange of meat for sex among chimpanzees. Journal of Human Evolution, 59, 4453.Google Scholar
Gomes, C. M., & Boesch, C. (2009). Wild chimpanzees exchange meat for sex on a long-term basis. PLoS ONE, 4, e5116.Google Scholar
Gomes, C. M., Mundry, R., & Boesch, C. (2009). Long-term reciprocation of grooming in wild West African chimpanzees. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 276, 699706.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Green, L., Price, P. C., & Hamburger, M. E. (1995). Prisoner’s dilemma and the pigeon: Control by immediate consequences. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 64, 117.Google Scholar
Gros-Louis, J., Perry, S., & Manson, J. H. (2003). Violent coalitionary attacks and intraspecific killing in wild white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus). Primates, 44, 341346.Google Scholar
Hall, K., Smith, M., Russell, J. L., Lambeth, S. P., Schapiro, S. J., & Brosnan, S. F. (2019). Chimpanzees rarely settle on consistent patterns of play in the Hawk Dove, Assurance, and Prisoner’s Dilemma Games, in a token exchange task. Animal Behavior and Cognition, 6, 4870.Google Scholar
Haroush, K., & Williams, Z. M. (2015). Neuronal prediction of opponents’ behavior during cooperative social interchange in primates. Cell, 160, 12331245.Google Scholar
Hayashi, N., Ostrom, E., Walker, J., & Yamagishi, T. (1999). Reciprocity, trust, and the sense of control a cross‐societal study. Rationality and Society, 11, 2746.Google Scholar
Hirata, S., & Fuwa, K. (2007). Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) learn to act with other individuals in a cooperative task. Primates, 48, 1321.Google Scholar
Hobaiter, C., Schel, A. M., Langergraber, K., & Zuberbühler, K. (2014). “Adoption” by maternal siblings in wild chimpanzees. PLoS ONE, 9, e103777.Google Scholar
Hockings, K. J., Humle, T., Anderson, J. R., Biro, D., Sousa, C., Ohashi, G., & Matsuzawa, T. (2007). Chimpanzees share forbidden fruit. PLoS ONE, 2, e886.Google Scholar
Janson, C. H. (2007). Experimental evidence for route integration and strategic planning in wild capuchin monkeys. Animal Cognition, 10, 341356.Google Scholar
Janson, C. H., & Brosnan, S. F. (2013). Experiments in primatology: From the lab to the field and back again. In Sterling, E., Bynum, N., & Blair, M. (Eds.), Primate ecology and conservation (pp. 177194). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kuczaj, S. A., Winship, K. A., & Eskelinen, H. C. (2015). Can bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) cooperate when solving a novel task? Animal Cognition, 18, 543550.Google Scholar
Lau, B., & Glimcher, P. W. (2005). Dynamic response-by-response models of matching behavior in rhesus monkeys. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 84, 555579.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Leca, J.-B., Gunst, N., Gardiner, M., & Wandia, I. N. (2021). Acquisition of object-robbing and object/food-bartering behaviours: A culturally maintained token economy in free-ranging long-tailed macaques. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376, 20190677.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marshall-Pescini, S., Schwarz, J. F. L., Kostelnik, I., Virányi, S, & Range, F. (2017). Importance of a species’ socioecology: Wolves outperform dogs in a conspecific cooperation task. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114, 1179311798.Google Scholar
Massen, J. J. M., Ritter, C., & Bugnyar, T. (2015). Tolerance and reward equity predict cooperation in ravens (Corvus corax). Scientific Reports, 5, 15021.Google Scholar
McConkey, K. R. (2000). Food sharing in black lion tamarins (Leontopithecus chrysopygus). American Journal of Primatology, 52, 4754.Google Scholar
Melis, A. P., Hare, B., & Tomasello, M. (2006a). Chimpanzees recruit the best collaborators. Science, 311, 12971300.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Melis, A. P., Hare, B., & Tomasello, M. (2006b). Engineering cooperation in chimpanzees: Tolerance constraints on cooperation. Animal Behaviour, 72, 275286.Google Scholar
Melis, A. P., Hare, B., & Tomasello, M. (2008). Do chimpanzees reciprocate received favours? Animal Behaviour, 76, 951962.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mendres, K. A., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2000). Capuchins do cooperate: The advantage of an intuitive task. Animal Behaviour, 60, 523529.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mitani, J. C., & Watts, D. P. (2001). Why do chimpanzees hunt and share meat? Animal Behaviour, 61, 915924.Google Scholar
Nakamura, M., & Itoh, N. (2001). Sharing of wild fruits among male chimpanzees: Two cases from Mahale, Tanzania. Pan Africa News, 8, 2831.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Noë, R. (1992). Alliance formation among male baboons: Shopping for profitable partners. In Harcourt, A. H. & De Waal, F. B. M. (Eds.), Coalitions and alliances in humans and other animals (pp. 285321). Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Pele, M., Dufour, V., Thierry, B., & Call, J. (2009). Token transfers among great apes (Gorilla gorilla, Pongo pygmaeus, Pan paniscus, and Pan troglodytes): Species differences, gestural requests, and reciprocal exchange. Journal of Comparative Psychology, 123, 375384.Google Scholar
Perry, S., Barrett, H. C., & Manson, J. H. (2004). White-faced capuchin monkeys show triadic awareness in their choice of allies. Animal Behaviour, 67, 165170.Google Scholar
Perry, S., Manson, J. H., Dower, G., & Wikberg, E. (2003). White-faced capuchins cooperate to rescue a groupmate from a boa constrictor. Folia Primatologica, 74, 109111.Google Scholar
Plotnik, J. M., Lair, R., Suphachoksahakun, W., & de Waal, F. B. M. (2011). Elephants know when they need a helping trunk in a cooperative task. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 108, 51165121.Google Scholar
Quintiero, E., Gastaldi, S., De Petrillo, F., Addessi, E., & Bourgeois-Gironde, S. (2021). Quantity–quality trade-off in the acquisition of token preference by capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 376, 20190662.Google Scholar
Rose, L. M. (1997). Vertibrate predation and food-sharing in Cebus and Pan. International Journal of Primatology, 18, 727765.Google Scholar
Rutte, C., & Taborsky, M. (2008). The influence of social experience on cooperative behaviour of rats (Rattus norvegicus): Direct vs generalised reciprocity. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 62, 499505.Google Scholar
Sargeant, E. J., Wikberg, E. C., Kawamura, S., & Fedigan, L. M. (2015). Allonursing in white-faced capuchins (Cebus capucinus) provides evidence for cooperative care of infants. Behaviour, 152, 18411869.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmelz, M., Grueneisen, S., Kabalak, A., Jost, J., & Tomasello, M. (2017). Chimpanzees return favors at a personal cost. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114, 74627467.Google Scholar
Seyfarth, R. M. (1977). A model of social grooming among adult female monkeys. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 65, 671698.Google Scholar
Silk, J. B. (1999). Male bonnet macaques use information about third-party rank relationships to recruit allies. Animal Behaviour, 58, 4551.Google Scholar
Skyrms, B. (2004). The stag hunt and the evolution of social structure. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Slocombe, K. E., & Newton-Fisher, N. E. (2005). Fruit sharing between wild adult chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii): A socially significant event? American Journal of Primatology, 65, 385391.Google Scholar
Smith, M. F., Leverett, K. L., Wilson, B. J., & Brosnan, S. F. (2019). Capuchin monkeys (Sapajus [Cebus] apella) play Nash equilibria in dynamic games, but their decisions are likely not influenced by oxytocin. American Journal of Primatology, 81, e22973.Google Scholar
Smith, M. F., Watzek, J., & Brosnan, S. F. (2018). The importance of a truly cooperative methodology for comperative psychology. International Journal of Comperative Psychology, 31.Google Scholar
Stevens, J. R. (2004). The selfish nature of generosity: Harassment and food sharing in primates. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 271, 451456.Google Scholar
Strandburg-Peshkin, A., Farine, D. R., Couzin, I. D., & Crofoot, M. C. (2015). Shared decision-making drives collective movement in wild baboons. Science, 348, 13581361.Google Scholar
Suchak, M., Eppley, T. M., Campbell, M. W., & de Waal, F. B. (2014). Ape duos and trios: Spontaneous cooperation with free partner choice in chimpanzees. PeerJ, 2, e417.Google Scholar
Suchak, M., Eppley, T. M., Campbell, M. W., Feldman, R. A., Quarles, L. F., & de Waal, F. B. (2016). How chimpanzees cooperate in a competitive world. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, 113, 1021510220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Uehara, S., & Nyundo, R. (1983). One observed case of temporary adoption of an infant by unrelated nulliparous females among wild chimpanzees in the Mahale Mountains, Tanzania. Primates, 24, 456466.Google Scholar
Vale, G. L., Williams, L. E., Schapiro, S. J., Lambeth, S. P., & Brosnan, S. F. (2019). Responses to economic games of cooperation and conflict in squirrel monkeys (Saimiri boliviensis). Animal Behavior and Cognition, 6, 3247.Google Scholar
Van Belle, S., & Scarry, C. J. (2015). Individual participation in intergroup contests is mediated by numerical assessment strategies in black howler and tufted capuchin monkeys. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 370, 20150007.Google Scholar
van de Waal, E., Borgeaud, C., & Whiten, A. (2013). Potent social learning and conformity shape a wild primate’s foraging decisions. Science, 340, 483485.Google Scholar
Visalberghi, E., Quarantotti, B. P., & Tranchida, F. (2000). Solving a cooperation task without taking into account the partner’s behavior: The case of capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 114, 297301.Google Scholar
Watts, D. (2002). Reciprocity and interchange in the social relationships of wild male chimpanzees. Behaviour, 139, 343370.Google Scholar
Wilson, M. L., Hauser, M. D., & Wrangham, R. W. (2001). Does participation in intergroup conflict depend on numerical assessment, range location, or rank for wild chimpanzees? Animal Behaviour, 61, 12031216.Google Scholar
Wroblewski, E. E. (2008). An unusual incident of adoption in a wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) population at Gombe National Park. American Journal of Primatology, 70, 995998.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×