UNIT 5 DAY 7 - Altruism in Chimps and Humans

Question 1

genes and cultures

Answer 1

• other animals –> behaviours evolved by natural selection on genes
• non-human animals –> behaviour info contained gene development - genes create neural pathways in brain
  –> evolution of behaviour (Darwinian)
  –> info passed only from gonad to gonad via genes

Question 2

altruism

Answer 2

• results from selection favouring alleles that programs brains to deliver the appropriate level of altruism towards appropriate conspecifics (Hamiltons Law)

Question 3

behaviours - 2 sources of information ( genes and culture)

Answer 3

• culture –> sum of ideas in brain of human community
• genes –> direct behaviour function and store ideas (brain to brain)

Question 4

cultural transmission

Answer 4

• transmission of these ideas
• lamarckian

Question 5

cultural evolution

Answer 5

• Lamarckian
• allows for rapid propagation of ideas / behaviours compared to other animals
• makes human behaviour more malleable vs other animals

Question 6

humans still exhibit kin-directed altruism

Question 7

potential explanations for non-kin altruism –> reciprocal altruism

Answer 7

• returned the favours, requires (B greater than C) for both acts and confidence, cognition and memory that the acts will be returned

Question 8

potential explanations for non-kin altruism –> indirect reciprocity

Answer 8

• being kind to strangers without expecting it in return
• increases reputation, regard of others, don’t do it disingenuously

Question 9

potential explanations for non-kin altruism –> group selection

Answer 9

• altruism provides group benefits, increases quality of life
• selfish individuals sabotage, punishment acts on these individuals –> increases success in human societies

Question 10

potential explanations for non-kin altruism –> sexual selection

Answer 10

• altruism favoured because it is costly

Question 11

How is altruism defined in the article and what have the recent experiments shown about human and chimp altruism?

Answer 11

• People acting on the behalf of others
• Chimps perform basic form of helping in the absence of rewards spontaneously and repeatedly toward humans and conspecifics
• Chimps helped unfamiliar human without a reward
• Current research suggests the possibility that chimps are able and willing to help

Question 12

What questions remain unanswered about chimps?

Answer 12

It is unclear whether chimps will help another chimp

Question 13

What happens in experiment 1?

Answer 13

• Compared the helpfulness of chimps and human infants toward unfamiliar individuals
• Methods
  –> Tested 36 infant chimps born in the wild who were tested by a human with whom they had virtually no prior interactions
  –> Tested 36 18 month old human infants were tested by an unfamiliar adult in a similar context, allowing a direct quantitative comparison between species
  –> An object was placed out of reach for the recipient, but within reach of the subject
  –> Helping consisted of handing the object to the recipient
  –> To assess the motivations underlying helping, we varied whether the recipient made an unsuccessful attempt to get the object and whether he reward the subjects in exchange for the object
• Results
  –> 12 to 18 chimp and 16 to 18 infants tested in reaching conditions helped at least once
  –> The subjects were motivated to help the experimenter with his/her unachieved goal but did not aim at retrieving a material reward for themselves

Question 14

What were the differences in the responses of infant humans compared to chimps?

Answer 14

The only difference found was that the helping of human infants was faster

Question 15

What happened in experiment 2?

Answer 15

-Retested all subjects that had been helped at least once in the previous experiment
-The experiment set was the same expect subject had to put more physical effort in retrieving the object for the other
-Chimps and human infants again did not differ in the total amount of helping acts but this time there was also no difference between reaching and no reaching conditions

Question 16

What do the authors think carried over from experiment 1?

Answer 16

-Chimp and human infants again did not differ in the total amount of helping acts; but this time there was also no difference between reaching and no reaching conditions
-This was likely due to a carryover effect from experiment 1 in which subject had possibly learned that experimenter wanted the object

Question 17

What were their specific conclusions about experiment 2?

Answer 17

-Second experiment demonstrated that helping was sustained even if the costs were raised, and replicated the finding that rewarding was not necessary to elicit helping behaviors in either species

Question 18

What are the overarching conclusions based upon both experiment 1 and 2?

Answer 18

-Both experiment underscore the claim that altruistic motivations are already apparent early in human life requiring little socialisation
-Altruistic motivations to help others do not seem to be unique to humans

Question 19

What happened in experiment 3?

Answer 19

-Chimps were faced with the problem that a door leading to a room with food was fixed with a chain
-If the subject released the chain from their room could the recipient
-They tested 9 chimps
-If subjects were sensitive to the recipient’s goal they should produce the target behaviour of releasing the chain more often in the experimental condition than in the control condition
-Each subject performed both conditions of five consecutive trials each for a within subject comparison

Question 20

What do the authors conclude about how far back human altruism likely extended?

Answer 20

-The roots of human altruism may go deeper than previously thought, reaching as far back as the last common ancestor of humans and chimps

Question 21

What evidence is there about the extent of altruism in humans that we don’t have for chimp?

Answer 21

• Chimps have the capacity to use a newly acquired skill to help a conspecific as well
  -This helping occurred spontaneously and repeatedly even in a novel situation when no reward is expected and no previous rewarding could have trained them to act accordingly

Question 22

empathy

Answer 22

-the ability to understand and share the feelings of another

Question 23

What is the role of culture in humans compared to chimps?

Answer 23

Human cultural groups might have created unique social mechanisms to groups might have created unique social mechanisms to preserve and foster altruism