Abstract
Humans follow the example of prestigious, high-status individuals much more readily than that of others, such as when we copy the behavior of village elders, community leaders, or celebrities. This tendency has been declared uniquely human, yet remains untested in other species. Experimental studies of animal learning have typically focused on the learning mechanism rather than on social issues, such as who learns from whom. The latter, however, is essential to understanding how habits spread. Here we report that when given opportunities to watch alternative solutions to a foraging problem performed by two different models of their own species, chimpanzees preferentially copy the method shown by the older, higher-ranking individual with a prior track-record of success. Since both solutions were equally difficult, shown an equal number of times by each model and resulted in equal rewards, we interpret this outcome as evidence that the preferred model in each of the two groups tested enjoyed a significant degree of prestige in terms of whose example other chimpanzees chose to follow. Such prestige-based cultural transmission is a phenomenon shared with our own species. If similar biases operate in wild animal populations, the adoption of culturally transmitted innovations may be significantly shaped by the characteristics of performers.
Highlights
The impressive geographic variation in chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) behavior is thought to be cultural in that it results from the transmission of socially acquired habits
Chimpanzee cultures likely arise when new behaviors are introduced to a population either through immigration by an outsider into an established group or by invention from within [6,7,8,9]
Whether or not a new behavior is copied by others to become part of daily life likely depends on social variables such as the relationship of potential learners with the original model [10,11,12,13]
Summary
The impressive geographic variation in chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) behavior is thought to be cultural in that it results from the transmission of socially acquired habits. Comparisons between African field sites, many of which have been in operation for several decades [1,2], have revealed variations in dozens of courtship, communication, grooming, and tool-use behaviors, which differ between sites without obvious genetic or ecological explanations [3,4,5]. These findings raise questions about the evolution of our own cultural behavior and the extent to which chimpanzee and human cultures rely on the same social and cognitive processes. Whether or not a new behavior is copied by others to become part of daily life likely depends on social variables such as the relationship of potential learners with the original model [10,11,12,13]
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