School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK.
School of Psychological Sciences, University of Manchester, Coupland 1 Building, Coupland Street, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK.
Nat Commun. 2016 Dec 20;7:13915. doi: 10.1038/ncomms13915.
An important debate centres around the nature of prosociality in nonhuman primates. Chimpanzees help other individuals in some experimental settings, yet they do not readily share food. One solution to this paradox is that they are motivated to help others provided there are no competing interests. However, benefits to recipients could arise as by-products of testing. Here we report two studies that separate by-product from intended helping in chimpanzees using a GO/NO-GO paradigm. Actors in one group could help a recipient by releasing a food box, but the same action for another group prevented a recipient from being able to get food. We find no evidence for helping-chimpanzees engaged in the test regardless of the effects on their partners. Illusory prosocial behaviour could arise as a by-product of task design.
一个重要的争论焦点是关于非人类灵长类动物亲社会行为的本质。在某些实验环境中，黑猩猩会帮助其他个体，但它们不会轻易分享食物。解决这个悖论的一种方法是，只要没有竞争利益，它们就有帮助他人的动机。然而，对接受者的好处可能是测试的副产品。在这里，我们报告了两项使用 GO/NO-GO 范式在黑猩猩身上将副产品与有意帮助分开的研究。一组中的行为者可以通过释放一个食物箱来帮助接受者，但对于另一组来说，同样的行为会阻止接受者获得食物。我们没有发现帮助黑猩猩的证据，无论这对它们的伙伴有什么影响，它们都会参与测试。虚幻的亲社会行为可能是任务设计的副产品。
