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Living psychology: animal minds
Living psychology: animal minds

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5.4 Collaborative problem-solving: the role of emotions

Now watch this video, where the ethologist Professor Frans de Waal presents and discusses examples of collaboration and co-operation between animals (including in problem-solving). He frames the need for co-operation as part of the basis of morality. His discussion includes some early work with chimpanzees, which led to the ‘cooperating elephants’ study that you learned about in Section 5.2 of this course, as well as footage from the elephant study itself. Professor de Waal also discusses the role of emotions and empathy in animal collaboration, and the effect that they have on co-operation.

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Activity 9 Exploring cooperation and emotion in animals

Timing: Allow 45 minutes for this activity

Based on the video you’ve just watched, answer the following questions (go back and watch the video again if it helps).

1. Why have (some) animals evolved to cooperate with each other, rather than just to compete?

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Answer

Many species, including higher primates such as humans, chimpanzees and bonobos, live in social groups. The members of such groups depend on each other for survival, so the relationships between individuals within the group are valuable and must be protected, or repaired if damaged.

Furthermore, some tasks cannot easily be completed by an individual working alone; for example, in the wild, many species hunt or drive away predators together. The same cooperative drive causes animals in the artificial situation of a laboratory experiment to collaborate to obtain food rewards.

2. What role might emotions have in motivating cooperation?

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Answer

Frans de Waal argues that empathy, which he defines as ‘the ability to understand and share the feelings of another’, may play a role in motivating an animal to cooperate with another animal. The chimpanzees in his research tended to select responses (handing tokens to the human researcher) that would result in a partner chimpanzee also receiving a food reward, rather than responding either randomly or selfishly. He argues that this is because the chimpanzees ‘care’ about each other (remember that ‘care’ is also one of Panksepp’s primal emotions). There is also evidence that some species (capuchin monkeys were featured in the video) have a sense of fairness, which may be involved in cooperation, and experience anger when treated unfairly.

Further reading

Brosnan and de Waal’s (2003) findings that capuchin monkeys had a sense of fairness − or, rather, unfairness − attracted a lot of attention when it was published in the journal Nature in 2003. You may find it interesting to read the article Monkeys reject unequal pay [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] for yourself.