Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
Chimps Can Be More Rational Than Humans
Whatever the rampant growth of human neo-cortex does it does not always make us more rational than other animals. Keith Jenson, Josep Call and Mike Tomasello, from the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, compared humans and chimps on species-suitable versions of the ultimatum game in which one individual is expected to maximize assets he is given by being miserly toward the second partner. The assumption is that humans will be rationally self-interested - indeed the idea underpins most of economics. However, humans play irrationally because they factor in notions of fairness and cooperation such that they give more than they "should". This clearly reflects the intense evolutionary development of our "social brain". Chimps, however, are ruthlessly rational - giving the tiniest amounts away. The other partner in the game seems always happy with whatever crumbs he receives.
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