According to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on May 31, children are more curious to explore the unknown than great apes. However, after a glimpse of the potential rewards, apes learn to investigate uncertain options. The study was conducted by Alejandro Sánchez-Amaro at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany and Federico Rossano at the University of California San Diego in the United States.
Humans are curious creatures. We are motivated to explore and investigate mysterious or unknown objects, but do other great apes share this innate curiosity?
To investigate, researchers tested whether captive great apes and human children would choose an unknown option over a visible reward. In a series of experiments, they asked adult chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), gorillas (Gorilla gorilla), bonobos (Pan paniscus), and orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) to choose between two up-turned plastic cups covering some grapes. One cup was transparent and contained a small reward, while the other was opaque, hiding a larger reward. Children aged three to five years old were given a similar task, with stickers as a reward.
On average, children were more likely to forego the certain reward in favor of the mysterious one—85% and 77% of children chose the opaque cup at least once during the fourth and fifth studies respectively, compared to 24% of apes in the third study. When the hidden reward was briefly revealed and participants were allowed to change their choice, over 88% of apes and children chose the opaque cup with the larger reward at least once.
The study is the first to compare curiosity in human children and great apes using the same experimental set-up. The results suggest that children may be more motivated to explore the unknown, or less risk-averse than great apes, the authors say. However, after learning about the rewards of exploring uncertainty, apes quickly applied this knowledge to future scenarios.
2023-05-31 13:30:05
Original from phys.org