Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-11T01:49:21.407Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Social preference experiments in animals: Strengthening the case for human preferences

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2012

Keith Jensen
Keith Jensen
Affiliation:
Research Centre for Psychology, School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, London E1 4NS, United Kingdom. k.jensen@qmul.ac.ukhttp://www.sbcs.qmul.ac.uk/staff/keithjensen.html
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Guala appears to take social preferences for granted in his discussion of reciprocity experiments. While he does not overtly claim that social preferences are only by-products that arise in testing environments, he does assert that whatever they are – and how they evolved – they have little value in the real world. Experiments on animals suggest that social preferences may be unique to humans, supporting the idea that they might play a prominent role in our world.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , February 2012 , pp. 30 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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

Batson, C. D. (1991) The altruism question: Toward a social-psychological answer. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
de Waal, F. B. M., Luttrell, L. M. & Canfield, M. E. (1993) Preliminary data on voluntary food sharing in brown capuchin monkeys. American Journal of Primatology 29:73–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Falk, A., Fehr, E. & Fischbacher, U. (2003) On the nature of fair behavior. Economic Inquiry 41:20–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falk, A. & Fischbacher, U. (2006) A theory of reciprocity Games and Economic Behavior 54:293–315.Google Scholar
Gilby, I. C. (2006) Meat sharing among the Gombe chimpanzees: Harassment and reciprocal exchange. Animal Behaviour 71:953–63.Google Scholar
Gros-Louis, J. (2004) The function of food-associated calls in white-faced capuchin monkeys, Cebus capucinus, from the perspective of the signaller. Animal Behaviour 67:431–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hauser, M. D. (1992) Costs of deception: Cheaters are punished in rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 89:12137–39.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Henrich, J., McElreath, R., Barr, A., Ensminger, J., Barrett, C., Bolyanatz, A., Cardenas, J. C., Gurven, M., Gwako, E., Henrich, N., Lesorogol, C., Marlowe, F., Tracer, D. & Ziker, J. (2006) Costly punishment across human societies. Science 312:1767–70.Google Scholar
Jensen, K. (2010) Punishment and spite, the dark side of cooperation. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 365:2635–50.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Jensen, K. (in press) Social regard: Evolving a psychology of cooperation. In: The evolution of primate societies, ed. Mitani, J., Call, J., Kappeler, P., Palombit, R. & Silk, J.. Chicago University Press.Google Scholar
Jensen, K., Call, J. & Tomasello, M. (2007a) Chimpanzees are vengeful but not spiteful. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 104:13046–50.Google Scholar
Jensen, K., Call, J. & Tomasello, M. (2007b) Chimpanzees are rational maximizers in an ultimatum game. Science 318:107–109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jensen, K., Hare, B., Call, J. & Tomasello, M. (2006) What's in it for me? Self-regard precludes altruism and spite in chimpanzees. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B: Biological Sciences 273:1013–21.Google ScholarPubMed
Jensen, K. & Tomasello, M. (2010) Punishment. In: Encyclopedia of animal behavior, ed. Breed, M. D. & Moore, J., pp. 800–805. Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marlowe, F. W. & Berbesque, J. C. (2008) More “altruistic” punishment in larger societies. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 275:587–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ortony, A., Clore, G. L. & Collins, A. (1988) The cognitive structure of emotions. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Silk, J. B. & House, B. R. (2011) Evolutionary foundations of human prosocial sentiments. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 108 (Suppl. 2):10910–17.Google Scholar
Zizzo, D. J. & Oswald, A. J. (2001) Are people willing to pay to reduce others' incomes? Annales d'économie et de statistique 63–64:39–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar