Not only humans love cooperation. This trait which makes it easier to solve problems and to succeed, especially when working in teams, is essential. However, in this article, we are bringing you a new study by Yerkes National Primate Research Center researchers which found out that the chimpanzees overwhelmingly performed cooperative acts – 3,565 times across 94 hour-long test sessions, when they were provided ample opportunities for competition, aggression and freeloading.
According to the researchers, when given a choice between cooperating or competing, chimpanzees choose to cooperate five times more frequently. The study results that were reported in this week’s early online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, mention that chimps refuse to work in the presence of a freeloader, which supports avoidance as an important component in managing competitive tendencies, and more dominant chimpanzees intervening to help others against freeloaders.
Phys.org quotes Malini Suchak, PhD, lead author of the study, as saying that “Previous statements in the literature describe human cooperation as a ‘huge anomaly’ and chimpanzees as preferring competition over collaboration,” adding “When we considered chimpanzees’ natural behaviors, we thought surely they must be able to manage competition on their own, so we gave them the freedom to employ their own enforcement strategies”.
The scientist continues to say that chimps are good at preventing competition and favoring cooperation. She also affirms that, the ratio of conflict to cooperation is quite similar in humans and chimpanzees, as the study shows.
On the other hand, Frans de Waal, PhD, director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes Research Center, a C. H. Candler Professor of Psychology at Emory University and one of the study authors, says that the recent study “is the first to show that our closest relatives know very well how to discourage competition and freeloading. Cooperation wins!” He mentioned that since the natural world is full of cooperation, from ants to killer whales, but in the case of the the chimps, it’s quite different.
