Skip to main content
Journal cover image

No third-party punishment in chimpanzees.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Riedl, K; Jensen, K; Call, J; Tomasello, M
Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
September 2012

Punishment can help maintain cooperation by deterring free-riding and cheating. Of particular importance in large-scale human societies is third-party punishment in which individuals punish a transgressor or norm violator even when they themselves are not affected. Nonhuman primates and other animals aggress against conspecifics with some regularity, but it is unclear whether this is ever aimed at punishing others for noncooperation, and whether third-party punishment occurs at all. Here we report an experimental study in which one of humans' closest living relatives, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), could punish an individual who stole food. Dominants retaliated when their own food was stolen, but they did not punish when the food of third-parties was stolen, even when the victim was related to them. Third-party punishment as a means of enforcing cooperation, as humans do, might therefore be a derived trait in the human lineage.

Duke Scholars

Altmetric Attention Stats
Dimensions Citation Stats

Published In

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI

EISSN

1091-6490

ISSN

0027-8424

Publication Date

September 2012

Volume

109

Issue

37

Start / End Page

14824 / 14829

Related Subject Headings

  • Video Recording
  • Social Behavior
  • Punishment
  • Pan troglodytes
  • Linear Models
  • Biological Evolution
  • Behavior, Animal
  • Animals, Zoo
  • Animals
 

Citation

APA
Chicago
ICMJE
MLA
NLM
Riedl, K., Jensen, K., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2012). No third-party punishment in chimpanzees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(37), 14824–14829. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1203179109
Riedl, Katrin, Keith Jensen, Josep Call, and Michael Tomasello. “No third-party punishment in chimpanzees.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 109, no. 37 (September 2012): 14824–29. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1203179109.
Riedl K, Jensen K, Call J, Tomasello M. No third-party punishment in chimpanzees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2012 Sep;109(37):14824–9.
Riedl, Katrin, et al. “No third-party punishment in chimpanzees.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, vol. 109, no. 37, Sept. 2012, pp. 14824–29. Epmc, doi:10.1073/pnas.1203179109.
Riedl K, Jensen K, Call J, Tomasello M. No third-party punishment in chimpanzees. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 2012 Sep;109(37):14824–14829.
Journal cover image

Published In

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI

EISSN

1091-6490

ISSN

0027-8424

Publication Date

September 2012

Volume

109

Issue

37

Start / End Page

14824 / 14829

Related Subject Headings

  • Video Recording
  • Social Behavior
  • Punishment
  • Pan troglodytes
  • Linear Models
  • Biological Evolution
  • Behavior, Animal
  • Animals, Zoo
  • Animals