It happens when they perform computer tasks. It turns out that the number of people watching them influences them. The unknown behavior of chimpanzees is described in the magazine iScience.
When people have an audience watching them, their performance can change for the better or the worse. This “audience effect” would predate the development of human societies based on reputation.
Thousands of sessions
“It was very surprising to discover that chimpanzees are affected in their performance on tasks by audience members. Also, human audience members,” says Christen Lin of Kyoto University in Japan. «They are affected by human audiences. Even depending on the difficulty of the task. “This suggests that this relationship is more complex than we would have initially expected.”
«Our study site is special. Chimpanzees frequently interact with humans and even enjoy their company. “They participate almost daily in various experiments with touch screens to obtain food rewards,” they say. “It is the opportunity to explore possible similarities in audience-related effects.”
The researchers made the discovery after analyzing thousands of sessions. In these, chimpanzees completed a touch-screen task for six years. They found that in three different number-based tasks, the chimpanzees performed better on the more difficult task as the number of experimenters observing them increased. On the easier task, the chimpanzees performed worse when they were observed.
Shared evolution
It is unclear what specific mechanisms underlie these audience-related effects. Even in the case of humans. They suggest that further study in non-human apes may offer more information. They hope to find out how this trait evolved and why it developed.
The unknown behavior of chimpanzees tells us a lot about ourselves. “Worrying about witnesses and audience members may not be so specific to our species,” they say. “These characteristics are a fundamental part of how our societies rely heavily on reputation. Chimpanzees also pay special attention to audience members while performing their tasks. “It stands to reason that these audience-based traits could have evolved before reputation-based societies emerged in our great ape lineage.”
