Chimps share with children sense of curiosity for social interactions
An international team of researchers found that chimpanzees and young children prefer to watch videos of social interactions compared to videos of a single individual.
Advertisement
They also found that young children and male chimpanzees were even willing to give up a treat to watch the videos.
The study involved three experiments carried out at the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Uganda and at Oakland Zoo and the Lawrence Hall of Science in California.
The researchers built two 'curiosity boxes' which held tablets playing different videos with one showing social interaction such as grooming, playing or arguing with the other showing just an individual acting alone.
In the first experiment involving chimpanzees and children aged between four and six, they found that both species spent more time watching the social scenes.
Advertisement
In the second, the participants had to choose between a reward – jackfruit seeds for chimps and marbles for children – for the chance to watch a social video.
They found that some younger children and male chimpanzees would choose the video over the treat.
For the third experiment, they tested whether the participants preferred watching positive interactions such as grooming or play or negative ones such as conflict.
They found the chimpanzees did not appear to show a strong preference, while the humans did.
Advertisement
The researcher said boys as they got older preferred negative scenes while the girls were more interested in positive ones.
Dr Esther Herrman, of the University of Portsmouth's Centre for Comparative and Evolutionary Psychology, who co-authored the research, said: 'This study tells us that curiosity about what others are doing – what you might call being a bit nosy – starts young and runs deep.
'It's probably something that helps not only us but also our closest living relatives to survive and thrive in complex social groups.'
She added: 'This kind of social curiosity is actually really important for learning about our environment, making decisions and building relationships.'
Advertisement
The researchers say the study results, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, indicate that human curiosity could be a trait inherited millions of years ago from a common ancestor we had with chimpanzees.
Lead author, Dr Laura Simone Lewis at the University of California in Santa Barbara, said: 'Our strong interest in the lives of others – think gossip magazines and celebrity shows – seems to have deep evolutionary roots in our great ape lineage.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
This is the best time to take an exam to boost your chances of passing, study finds
Sign up for our free Health Check email to receive exclusive analysis on the week in health Get our free Health Check email Get our free Health Check email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice Midday may be the best time to take an oral exam, interview for a job, or even go on trial, a new study has found. Researchers at Italy's University of Messina found a significant difference in students' pass rates in the late morning compared to early morning or late afternoon. At 12pm the students' passing rate was 72 per cent, compared to 54 per cent at 8am and 51 per cent at 4pm. Pass rates at 11am and 1pm were slightly lower at 67 per cent. 'We show that academic assessment outcomes vary systematically across the day, with a clear peak in passing rates around midday,' said Professor Carmelo Mario Vicario. 'Students were more likely to pass in late morning compared with early morning or late afternoon,' he said. 'We believe this pattern could extend to job interviews or any evaluative process scheduled throughout the day.' The study was based on the outcome of 104,552 assessments delivered by 680 examiners for 1,243 courses. The researchers chose to look at university oral exams, which are more subjective and aren't marked solely on correct answers, but also on delivery. It follows research showing that judges are more likely to rule in favour of a defendant at the start of sessions or after meal breaks. However, it is thought that this could also come down to the types of cases that are heard at different times of day. The study's author believes the findings could extend to job interviews ( Getty/iStock ) While the study could not identify the exact cause, it said the midday peak was consistent with evidence that cognitive performance improves over the morning and declines during the afternoon. The report said this could be due to the students' falling energy levels, as well as professors', who may give a harsher mark if they are experiencing decision fatigue. Researchers also said that it could be a result of students and professors competing chronotypes, the body's natural preference of sleeping times. 'People in their early 20s are usually night owls, while people in their 40s or older tend to be morning larks. The students might be least cognitively sharp at the time when the professors are most alert.' Prof Vicario suggested that to counteract these effects, students would benefit from better sleep, mental breaks, and scheduling exams outside of personal low periods. 'For institutions, delaying morning sessions or clustering key assessments in the late morning may improve outcomes. 'We believe this pattern could extend to job interviews or any evaluative process scheduled throughout the day. 'We would be very interested in investigating whether hiring decisions, too, fluctuate in fairness or outcome depending on time of day.'
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
The NHS change that could prevent 6,500 cancer cases each year
A new study suggests that thousands of breast cancer cases could be prevented annually in the UK by expanding eligibility for risk-reducing mastectomies (RRM). The research indicates that approximately 6,500 cases could be averted each year if RRM was more widely adopted beyond current genetic predispositions. Currently, RRM is primarily offered to women with BRCA1, BRCA2, or PALB2 genes, but the study proposes including those with other high-risk genes like ATM and CHEK2. The study also highlights that a combination of factors, including family history, parity, breastfeeding, and mammogram density, should be considered for RRM eligibility. Researchers from Queen Mary University of London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found RRM to be cost-effective for women aged 30-55 with a lifetime breast cancer risk of 35 per cent or more.
Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Discovery at Earth's 'most dangerous glacier' sparks joy among climate skeptics
Scientists have made a startling discovery that may debunk global warming at Earth's 'most dangerous glacier,' sending climate change deniers into celebration. Based on a surprising photo taken by the International Space Station (ISS) in 2023, researchers from around the world have concluded that three glaciers in Asia 's Karakoram mountain range have been gaining ice and merging. The NASA image revealed that the Lolofond and Teram Shehr glaciers have been slowly merging with the Siachen glacier near the borders of India, Pakistan, China, and Afghanistan. The region has long been referred to as the world's most dangerous glacier range due to the ongoing conflict between India and Pakistan, with both nations positioning troops on their side of the glaciers since 1984. Long before the photo was revealed, scientists had called the unexplained ice gains the 'Karakoram anomaly,' since many climate studies have found that most glaciers worldwide are losing mass due to rising temperatures. However, this is the second major glacier location to see more ice being formed in recent years. In May, researchers in Shanghai discovered that Antarctica started to reverse its decades-long trend of catastrophic melting and has seen record amounts of ice forming since 2021. The latest development from Karakoram has set off climate deniers on social media, who have continued to claim that the alarmism over global warming has been nothing more than a hoax. 'UH oh, Democrats. Are we back to a new Ice Age?' one person joked on X, referring to Democrat-led climate bills in Congress. 'This anomaly has baffled scientists for years, no doubt upsetting #ClimateChange fanatics,' another person posted. To the climate deniers' point, scientists studying the Karakoram anomaly since the 1990s still haven't been able to pin down a clear reason why more ice has been forming and the glaciers are merging. One possible explanation could be that favorable weather patterns in the region have kept the ice from melting. That includes seeing cooler summers and more snow in the winter. A 2022 study in the Journal of Climate found that wintertime precipitation intensity (snow) in the Karakoram range rose by roughly 10 percent between 1980 and 2019. However, a 2023 study in Earth System Science Data claimed that the phenomenon likely wouldn't last due to rising global temperatures countering this short stretch of cold weather. 'This may indicate a weakening of the abnormal behavior of glaciers in the Karakoram owing to the continuous warming,' the researchers said. Despite the latest climate findings, the region has continued to show signs of unusual ice growth that have left geologists and climatologists stumped. Another theory, posed by geology professor Kenneth Hewitt of Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, suggested that thick layers of dust and debris could be keeping the ice underneath from melting in the sun like other glaciers. His 2005 paper in the journal Mountain Research and Development found that less than two inches of debris from local avalanches and rockfalls over the centuries would be enough to start protecting the ice from melting. However, researchers from the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Colorado shot this theory down, noting that if the Karakoram anomaly only started in the 1990s, as studies show, something else would need to spark this trend besides centuries of dust. Siachen has been the world's second-longest glacier outside of Greenland and Antarctica. NASA scientists have measured it to be around 47 miles long and 2.2 miles in width. Sitting near K2, the world's second-highest mountain, the Siachen glacier's peak starts around 19,000 feet above sea level and descends to around 11,800 feet. The photo released by NASA also highlighted the dark-colored moraines, which are parallel bands formed from rock and dust wedged between the glaciers as they merge. These layers were particularly noticeable around the Teram Shehr glacier as it smashes into the Siachen glacier from the right side. As scientists struggle to answer the question of why more ice is growing in this disputed part of Asia, the mystery has given skeptics of climate science even more evidence to use against so-called 'climate alarmists.' University of Cambridge professor Mike Hulme told in 2023 that climate alarmists have created tremendous distrust and ill will among the public by blaming almost all of society's issues on the climate emergency. 'Climate change is cited as the sole explanation for everything going wrong in the world. Drought, famine, flooding, wars, racism – you name it. And if it's bad, it's down to global warming caused by humans,' Professor Hulme said. 'I disagree with the doom-mongers. Climate change is not like a comet approaching Earth. There is no good scientific or historical evidence that it will lead to human extinction or the collapse of human civilization,' the professor of human geography added.
