Burkart Judith M, Fehr Ernst, Efferson Charles, van Schaik Carel P
Anthropological Institute, University of Zurich, Winterthurerstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Dec 11;104(50):19762-6. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0710310104. Epub 2007 Dec 5.
Human cooperation is unparalleled in the animal world and rests on an altruistic concern for the welfare of genetically unrelated strangers. The evolutionary roots of human altruism, however, remain poorly understood. Recent evidence suggests a discontinuity between humans and other primates because individual chimpanzees do not spontaneously provide food to other group members, indicating a lack of concern for their welfare. Here, we demonstrate that common marmoset monkeys (Callithrix jacchus) do spontaneously provide food to nonreciprocating and genetically unrelated individuals, indicating that other-regarding preferences are not unique to humans and that their evolution did not require advanced cognitive abilities such as theory of mind. Because humans and marmosets are cooperative breeders and the only two primate taxa in which such unsolicited prosociality has been found, we conclude that these prosocial predispositions may emanate from cooperative breeding.
人类合作在动物界中无与伦比，它基于对基因上无亲缘关系的陌生人福利的利他主义关怀。然而，人类利他主义的进化根源仍知之甚少。最近的证据表明人类与其他灵长类动物之间存在差异，因为黑猩猩个体不会主动给其他群体成员提供食物，这表明它们对其他成员的福利缺乏关心。在此，我们证明普通狨猴（Callithrix jacchus）会主动给不回报且基因上无亲缘关系的个体提供食物，这表明关心他人的偏好并非人类所独有，而且这种偏好的进化并不需要诸如心理理论等高级认知能力。由于人类和狨猴都是合作繁殖者，且是仅有的两个发现有这种主动亲社会行为的灵长类分类群，我们得出结论，这些亲社会倾向可能源自合作繁殖。
