Chimpanzees favor cooperation over competition: studyWASHINGTON — Chimpanzees, one of humans’ closest relatives, favor cooperation over competition, challenging the perceptions humans are unique in our ability to cooperate and chimpanzees are overly competitive, a U.S. study suggested Monday. Chimpanzee mother with baby (Photo by Magnus Johansson via Wikimedia Commons)The chimpanzees were free to choose their own cooperation partners, allowing opportunities for cooperation or freeloading. The study found chimpanzees used a variety of enforcement strategies to overcome competition, displacement and freeloading, which the researchers measured by attempted thefts of rewards. “It has become a popular claim in the literature that human cooperation is unique. Our study is the first to show that our closest relatives know very well how to discourage competition and freeloading.

Source: Manila Bulletin August 23, 2016 02:48 UTC