About this item:

338 Views | 26 Downloads

Author Notes:

To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: dewaal@emory.edu.

Author contributions: D.P., R.A.W., F.B.M.d.W., and S.F.B. wrote the paper.

Subject:

Reply to Henrich and Silk: Toward a unified explanation for apes and humans

Tools:

Journal Title:

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Volume:

Volume 110, Number 33

Publisher:

, Pages E3050-E3050

Type of Work:

Article | Final Publisher PDF

Abstract:

We appreciate the methodological concerns of Henrich and Silk, which resemble those of Jensen et al. Both critiques focus on the lack of refusals by the responders in our ultimatum game (UG), an option on which the subjects were never trained. As discussed previously, we fail to see how this lack of refusals would invalidate the behavioral change measured in the proposers. Both the children and the chimpanzees behaved far more equitably when a partner was actively involved in the task. It is this dramatic behavioral shift from selfish to equitable, which was highly significant in each of the four tested chimpanzee pairs as well as in the children, that begs an explanation. Unless ad hoc speculations about confusion or lack of understanding can somehow be substantiated, we prefer an explanation that is the same across all UG subjects: apes, children, and human adults: If equitable choices are interpreted as a sign of “fairness” in human studies, why not in those of apes? Thus, if the near absence of rejection by young children is thought to be a matter of impulse control rather than a lack of distinction between fair and unfair outcomes, the same perspective may apply to apes.

Copyright information:

© 2013 National Academy of Sciences

Export to EndNote