Bonobos Show Sharing's Not Exclusive To The Human Experience
Friday, February 12, 2010 - 13:00
in Psychology & Sociology
It appears that the act of voluntarily sharing something with another is not entirely exclusive to the human experience. Researchers writing in Current Biology observe that bonobos—a sister species of chimpanzees--consistently chose to share their food with others. In the study, bonobos had to choose whether to eat some food by themselves or to give another bonobo access to it. The test subjects had the opportunity to immediately eat the food or to use a "key" to open a door to an adjacent empty room or a room that had another bonobo in it. The test subjects could easily see into the adjacent rooms, so they know which one was empty and which was occupied. read more