Theft in an ultimatum game: chimpanzees and bonobos are insensitive to unfairness.
Journal Article (Journal Article)
Humans, but not chimpanzees, punish unfair offers in ultimatum games, suggesting that fairness concerns evolved sometime after the split between the lineages that gave rise to Homo and Pan. However, nothing is known about fairness concerns in the other Pan species, bonobos. Furthermore, apes do not typically offer food to others, but they do react against theft. We presented a novel game, the ultimatum theft game, to both of our closest living relatives. Bonobos and chimpanzee 'proposers' consistently stole food from the responders' portions, but the responders did not reject any non-zero offer. These results support the interpretation that the human sense of fairness is a derived trait.
Full Text
Duke Authors
Cited Authors
- Kaiser, I; Jensen, K; Call, J; Tomasello, M
Published Date
- December 2012
Published In
Volume / Issue
- 8 / 6
Start / End Page
- 942 - 945
PubMed ID
- 22896269
Pubmed Central ID
- 22896269
Electronic International Standard Serial Number (EISSN)
- 1744-957X
International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
- 1744-9561
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
- 10.1098/rsbl.2012.0519
Language
- eng