Shy and rarely seen outside the dense African jungle that inhabit south of the Congo River, the bonobos, but they can also. Now, researchers from Johns Hopkins University (USA) have identified a new facet that the species also has in common with humans: bonobos can intuit the ignorance of others, and communicate to correct and cooperate.
Again, it turns out to be part of the behavior of other animals. The Bonobo (Pan Paniscus) is, along with his sister species – the chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) -, the closest relative of humans. For the authors of the discovery, which the magazine publishes this Monday PNASthe sophisticated social ability to perceive deficiencies in the knowledge of others is key in the way we cooperate, communicate and work together strategically. And they maintain in their study that “those elaborate mental abilities had to appear millions of years ago in the common ancestors that we shared with the other apes.” During the evolution, the human lineage separated from that of chimpanzees and bonobos.
To reach these conclusions, the researchers submitted to a simple experiment – which involved three glasses and grapes that served as sweets – three bonobos resident in a research center dedicated to the conservation of these apes :. In the first sessions, the scientists placed the apes in a context of cooperation with the doctoral student Luke Townrow, who sat in front of each bonobo: to take the candy, their human partner had to be able to find her.
In the next phase of the experiment, sometimes Townrow could see under what glass the main author of the study, Christopher Krupenye, hid the grape; And on other occasions, no. The bonobos always saw everything. The research results show that these animals enthusiastically pointed out the hidden treats when Townrow asked them “Where is the grape?”, Especially he had not seen in which glass they were hidden. Instead, if the student had seen where the treat was hidden and asked the question, the ape normally remained waiting for them to give it.
“We work with a bonobos population that has been highly socialized with humans and that is why they have a lot of communication. We think it would be particularly useful to test our hypothesis, ”explains Krupenye, professor of Psychology and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins University. In fact, . This 40 -year -old Bonobo is considered the first great ape in another analysis.
Scientists state that these apes “can act to communicate and coordinate effectively” in the face of the ignorance of another. According to the primatologist, researcher at the University of Saint Andrews (United Kingdom) and oblivious to the study, he points out that “there are other results consisting of literature with what they found.”
The findings of the new research also go hand in hand with (USA), which in 2017 observed how the wild bonobos living in the Lola already Bonobo sanctuary (in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) were able to help strangers. Another 2013 study, published in the , It also supports the ability of this kind of primate to share with others. However, it is now the first time that these capacities are demonstrated in a controlled experiment.
Two opposing representations
Something that helps humans navigate the world is that we know that other people have separated minds from ours. These two different visions is what really understands the behavior of others, but also coordinate in the most effective way. In this study, explains Christopjer Krupenye, the bonobos had to recognize when their partner lacked information. The investigation suggests that the apes can maintain “two conflicting representations in parallel”: one that reflects the true nature of the world and another that does not.
This means that the analyzed group indicates the grapes because, apparently, they can identify a discrepancy between the lack of information from their interlocutor and their own knowledge. “When they point out, they do it in the right place. Therefore, we know they know where the food is. At the same time, they also know that their partner, who lacks that information, has an opposite understanding. The difference between those visions of the world is what leads them to fill the void to communicate, ”clarifies the main author of the study.
Also, scientists recognize that they do not know if the bonobos pointed to the grapes so that their peers do a “correct action” or if they did it because “they are sharing information. It is an important open question for future investigations, ”says Krupenye.
CLAROSCUROS IN THE MIND OF THE APS
In 1978, American primatologists David Present and Guy Woodruff asked, that is, if they are able to infer mental states of individuals of the same species as humans. What is known so far is that chimpanzees understand others in terms of a perception-objective psychology.
“Checking this theory would be a very difficult exercise. What we know is that there are some similarities and some differences, ”adds Josep Call. Meanwhile, Luke Townrow believes that an important question that should be asked, in relation to that aspect, is whether the apes are really able to point or communicate to change the mental state of another person: “We have just talk about how we believe they can recognize That someone else has a different perspective than yours, but what we do not know is if they understand that they can communicate to change that perspective, ”says the scientist.
