Man is a social animal. So social, in fact, as to make our strongly developed cognitive skills as exclusive a feature as an elephant’s trunk. Even Michael Tomasello can’t escape this fact of human exclusivity. But this doesn’t prevent the anthropologist, a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, from exploring to what extent primates, in particular chimpanzees, are capable of displaying differentiated cooperative behaviour.

In his lecture “Understanding and Sharing Intentions” at the Collegium Helveticum, last week, Tomasello first of all established that a distinct cultural “heredity” among humans does create a special situation. It is arguable whether a human child’s cognitive skills would be dramatically different from those of the apes were he to grow up on a desert island.

Chimpanzees know what their own species sees

However, because we do in fact interact with other people, the scientist went on to explain what he’s discovered in this regard. In earlier times, it was believed that only homo sapiens recognized intentions and objectives. But Tomasello has found evidence that this is also true for chimpanzees. In one experiment, two chimps had access to the same space in which their food was either out in the open or else hidden from one of them. Based on their behaviour, it was concluded that one chimp knew what the other saw and desired.

Our hairy cousins may understand intentions, but can they also behave cooperatively? In this connection, the anthropologist cited a study he published recently, demonstrating that chimpanzees are thoroughly capable of cooperation. When they need the help of one of their own species in order to reach their dinner, they quickly learn to carry out the appropriate action. They also quickly grasp who the good helpers are and show a preference for these. But chimpanzee help possibly goes even further: Tomasello observed how the apes make it possible for others to obtain their food, without profiting by it themselves.

“Humans are unique in their desire to share experience,” anthropologist Michael Tomasello explains. large

Human children are natural helpers and geared toward standards

If chimpanzees understand intentions, are cooperative and possibly even helpful, how then are they different from humans? The Leipzig scientist cited experiments carried out with 18-month-old children. If the children observed a researcher having difficulty picking up a pen or stacking books, they would spontaneously help. Chimpanzees ages 3 to 5 who have been raised by humans only offer their help with picking things up. Directing a person to a sought object such as a stapling device is behaviour shown exclusively by human children.

Moreover, human children crave a standardized procedure. Once they’ve seen and understood that one removes an object from a surface with a pushing implement, they become irritated if the action is then carried out another way. And in contrast to the chimpanzees, when their human partner ceases playing with them, they seek to re-engage him. Overall, the experiments indicate that chimpanzees possess significant social and cooperative skills, but that these differ qualitatively from those of human beings. It’s clear to Tomasello that cultural transmission reinforces this. But even he can’t say why man has become almost irritatingly social.