Chimp attack professional racer1/11/2024 “This might explain, in part, how we have been uniquely able to form large-scale societies of unrelated individuals,” says Keith Jensen, who was involved in the study. Riedl’s conclusion is stark: “In contrast to humans, chimpanzees do not engage in third-party punishment.” This behaviour, so crucial to our stable societies, seems to have evolved after our ancestors split away from the other apes. These were the first direct tests of third-party punishment in a non-human animal, and the chimps got an F. Even if the victim was a close relative, the third party never sought to punish the thief. Katrin Riedl from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany found that chimpanzees will punish individuals who steal food from them, but not those who steal food from others. If an entire society condemns you, the cost skyrockets.ĭo other animals do the same thing? It’s not clear, but one group of scientists believes that our closest relative – the chimpanzee – does not. If you wrong someone, and they’re the only ones who want to sanction you, the price of vice is low. This “third-party punishment” is thought to cement human societies together, and prevents cheats and free-riders from running riot. We call for retribution, even if we have nothing specific to gain from it and even if it costs us time, effort, status or money to do so. These recent events all illustrate a broad human trait: we seek to punish people who do wrong and violate our social rules, even when their actions don’t harm us directly. When Republican Todd Akin claimed that women could stop themselves from becoming pregnant if raped, people called for his head. When Samsung infringed Apple’s copyright, a jury of independent peers awarded Apple more than $1 billion in damages. When Delta Airlines refused to let Arijit Guha board a plane because his T-shirt made passengers uncomfortable, others made Delta aware of their outrage.
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