Abstract
Although chimpanzees understand what others may see, it is unclear whether they understand how others see things (Level 2 perspective-taking). We investigated whether chimpanzees can predict the behavior of a conspecific which is holding a mistaken perspective that differs from their own. The subject competed with a conspecific over two food sticks. While the subject could see that both were the same size, to the competitor one appeared bigger than the other. In a previously established game, the competitor chose one stick in private first and the subject chose thereafter, without knowing which of the sticks was gone. Chimpanzees and 6-year-old children chose the ‘riskier’ stick (that looked bigger to the competitor) significantly less in the game than in a nonsocial control. Children chose randomly in the control, thus showing Level 2 perspective-taking skills; in contrast, chimpanzees had a preference for the ‘riskier’ stick here, rendering it possible that they attributed their own preference to the competitor to predict her choice. We thus run a follow-up in which chimpanzees did not have a preference in the control. Now, they also chose randomly in the game. We conclude that chimpanzees solved the task by attributing their own preference to the other, while children truly understood the other’s mistaken perspective.
Highlights
We investigated whether chimpanzees can predict the behavior of a conspecific which is holding a mistaken perspective that differs from their own
When choosing between a small and a big stick on a transparent barrier, both chimpanzees and children picked the big stick at high rates in the nonsocial condition [chimpanzees: M = 91 % (69–100) of trials with choice of bigger stick; children: M = 87 % (50–100)], children were quite successful in refraining from choosing the big stick after the competitor had chosen [M = 28 % (0–62)]
Chimpanzees still picked the location of the big stick in more than half of the trials [M = 60 % (25–94)]
Summary
Chimpanzees are proficient when judging what others can see—they follow others’ gaze direction (Tomasello et al 1998), even around barriers (Brauer et al 2005; Hare et al 2000), can take into account what a competitor can and cannot see when competing for food (Brauer et al 2007; Hare et al 2000; Kaminski et al 2008), and make use of what a competitor has seen in the past (Hare et al 2001; MacLean and Hare 2012) They know that their perspective can differ from the perspective of others in the sense that they know that sometimes they can see objects that others cannot see and vice versa. There is evidence that in humans, Level 1 perspective-taking is mastered by the age of 2 years (Flavell et al 1978; McGuigan and Doherty 2002; Moll and Tomasello 2006), but Level 2 perspective-taking takes longer, until age 3 (Moll and Meltzoff 2011), with many studies suggesting an even later emergence (Flavell et al 1980, 1981; Masangkay et al 1974; Pillow and Flavell 1986)
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