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Westra E, Fitzpatrick S, Brosnan SF, Gruber T, Hobaiter C, Hopper LM, Kelly D, Krupenye C, Luncz LV, Theriault J, Andrews K. In search of animal normativity: a framework for studying social norms in non-human animals. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2024; 99:1058-1074. [PMID: 38268182 PMCID: PMC11078603 DOI: 10.1111/brv.13056] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/09/2023] [Revised: 01/13/2024] [Accepted: 01/16/2024] [Indexed: 01/26/2024]
Abstract
Social norms - rules governing which behaviours are deemed appropriate or inappropriate within a given community - are typically taken to be uniquely human. Recently, this position has been challenged by a number of philosophers, cognitive scientists, and ethologists, who have suggested that social norms may also be found in certain non-human animal communities. Such claims have elicited considerable scepticism from norm cognition researchers, who doubt that any non-human animals possess the psychological capacities necessary for normative cognition. However, there is little agreement among these researchers about what these psychological prerequisites are. This makes empirical study of animal social norms difficult, since it is not clear what we are looking for and thus what should count as behavioural evidence for the presence (or absence) of social norms in animals. To break this impasse, we offer an approach that moves beyond contested psychological criteria for social norms. This approach is inspired by the animal culture research program, which has made a similar shift away from heavily psychological definitions of 'culture' to become organised around a cluster of more empirically tractable concepts of culture. Here, we propose an analogous set of constructs built around the core notion of a normative regularity, which we define as a socially maintained pattern of behavioural conformity within a community. We suggest methods for studying potential normative regularities in wild and captive primates. We also discuss the broader scientific and philosophical implications of this research program with respect to questions of human uniqueness, animal welfare and conservation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Evan Westra
- Department of Philosophy, Purdue University, 100 N. University Street, West Lafayette, IN, 47905, USA
| | - Simon Fitzpatrick
- Department of Philosophy, John Carroll University, 1 John Carroll Boulevard, University Heights, Ohio 44118, USA
| | - Sarah F. Brosnan
- Departments of Psychology & Philosophy, Neuroscience Institute, Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, and the Language Research Center, Georgia State University, Georgia State University, Dept of Psychology, PO Box 5010, Atlanta, GA 30302-5010 USA
| | - Thibaud Gruber
- Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, and Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, Campus Biotech - University of Geneva, Chemin des Mines 9, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland
| | - Catherine Hobaiter
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Mary’s Quad, South St, Fife KY16 9JP, Scotland
| | - Lydia M. Hopper
- Department of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 720 Rutland Ave, Baltimore, Maryland, 21205, USA
| | - Daniel Kelly
- Department of Philosophy, Purdue University, 100 N. University Street, West Lafayette, IN, 47905, USA
| | - Christopher Krupenye
- Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
| | - Lydia V. Luncz
- Technological Primates Research Group, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Jordan Theriault
- Department of Radiology, Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Suite 2301, 149 Thirteenth Street, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA
| | - Kristin Andrews
- Department of Philosophy, York University, S448 Ross Building, 4700 Keele Street, Toronto, ON M3J 1P3, Canada
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van Leeuwen EJC, DeTroy SE, Haun DBM, Call J. Chimpanzees use social information to acquire a skill they fail to innovate. Nat Hum Behav 2024; 8:891-902. [PMID: 38448718 PMCID: PMC11132989 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-024-01836-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2023] [Accepted: 01/22/2024] [Indexed: 03/08/2024]
Abstract
Cumulative cultural evolution has been claimed to be a uniquely human phenomenon pivotal to the biological success of our species. One plausible condition for cumulative cultural evolution to emerge is individuals' ability to use social learning to acquire know-how that they cannot easily innovate by themselves. It has been suggested that chimpanzees may be capable of such know-how social learning, but this assertion remains largely untested. Here we show that chimpanzees use social learning to acquire a skill that they failed to independently innovate. By teaching chimpanzees how to solve a sequential task (one chimpanzee in each of the two tested groups, n = 66) and using network-based diffusion analysis, we found that 14 naive chimpanzees learned to operate a puzzle box that they failed to operate during the preceding three months of exposure to all necessary materials. In conjunction, we present evidence for the hypothesis that social learning in chimpanzees is necessary and sufficient to acquire a new, complex skill after the initial innovation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edwin J C van Leeuwen
- Animal Behaviour and Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands.
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium.
| | - Sarah E DeTroy
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Daniel B M Haun
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Josep Call
- School of Psychology & Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
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Andrews K, Fitzpatrick S, Westra E. Human and nonhuman norms: a dimensional framework. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2024; 379:20230026. [PMID: 38244597 PMCID: PMC10799728 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/10/2023] [Accepted: 12/12/2023] [Indexed: 01/22/2024] Open
Abstract
Human communities teem with a variety of social norms. In order to change unjust and harmful social norms, it is crucial to identify the psychological processes that give rise to them. Most researchers take it for granted that social norms are uniquely human. By contrast, we approach this matter from a comparative perspective, leveraging recent research on animal social behaviour. While there is currently only suggestive evidence for norms in nonhuman communities, we argue that human social norms are likely produced by a wide range of mechanisms, many of which we share with nonhuman animals. Approaching this variability from a comparative perspective can help norm researchers expand and reframe the range of hypotheses they test when attempting to understand the causes of socially normative behaviours in humans. First, we diagnose some of the theoretical obstacles to developing a comparative science of social norms, and offer a few basic constructs and distinctions to help norm researchers overcome these obstacles. Then we develop a six-dimensional model of the psychological and social factors that contribute to variability in both human and potential nonhuman norms. This article is part of the theme issue 'Social norm change: drivers and consequences'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kristin Andrews
- Department of Philosophy, York University, Toronto, ON, Canada M3J 1P3
| | - Simon Fitzpatrick
- Department of Philosophy, John Carroll University, Cleveland, OH, USA
| | - Evan Westra
- Department of Philosophy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, USA
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Whiten A. Cultural evolution in the science of culture and cultural evolution. Phys Life Rev 2023; 45:31-51. [PMID: 37003251 DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2023.03.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2023] [Accepted: 03/16/2023] [Indexed: 04/03/2023]
Abstract
My critical review [1] elicited a welcome diversity of perspectives across the 12 commentaries now published [2-13]. In total 28 co-authors were inspired to contribute. In addition to engaging with the critical perspectives of my review, several of the commentaries take the debates and discussions into insightful and potentially important supplementary domains that I highlight in what follows. I have extracted a number of major themes in which I detected overlaps in the foci of different commentaries, and I use these to organise my replies. I hope that our shared efforts will constitute some degree of 'cultural evolution' in our science, as suggested in the title of this reply to commentaries.
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Affiliation(s)
- Andrew Whiten
- Centre for Social Learning and Cognitive Evolution, School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews KY16 9JP, UK.
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What animal cultures may beget: Comment on "Blind alleys and fruitful pathways in the comparative study of cultural cognition" by Andrew Whiten. Phys Life Rev 2023; 44:99-101. [PMID: 36586308 DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2022.12.010] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2022] [Accepted: 12/12/2022] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
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van Leeuwen EJ, Hoppitt W. Biased cultural transmission of a social custom in chimpanzees. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2023; 9:eade5675. [PMID: 36791187 PMCID: PMC9931211 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ade5675] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/07/2022] [Accepted: 01/10/2023] [Indexed: 06/18/2023]
Abstract
Cultural transmission studies in animals have predominantly focused on identifying between-group variation in tool-use techniques, while immaterial cultures remain understudied despite their potential for highlighting similarities between human and animal culture. Here, using long-term data from two chimpanzee communities, we tested whether one of chimpanzees' most enigmatic social customs-the grooming handclasp-is culturally transmitted by investigating the influence of well-documented human transmission biases on their variational preferences. After identifying differences in style preferences between the communities, we show that older and dominant individuals exert more influence over their partners' handclasp styles. Mothers were equally likely to influence their offspring's preferences as nonkin, indicating that styles are transmitted both vertically and obliquely. Last, individuals gradually converged on the group style, suggesting that conformity guides chimpanzees' handclasp preferences. Our findings show that chimpanzees' social lives are influenced by cultural transmission biases that hitherto were thought to be uniquely human.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edwin J. C. van Leeuwen
- Animal Behaviour and Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands
- Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp, K. Astridplein 26, B 2018 Antwerp, Belgium
- Department of Comparative Cultural Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - William Hoppitt
- Department of Biological Sciences, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, UK
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Aggressive, Submissive, and Affiliative Behavior in Sanctuary Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) During Social Integration. Animals (Basel) 2022; 12:ani12182421. [PMID: 36139279 PMCID: PMC9494963 DOI: 10.3390/ani12182421] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/01/2022] [Revised: 09/10/2022] [Accepted: 09/12/2022] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Chimp Haven is a sanctuary for chimpanzees being retired from biomedical research and from facilities that can no longer care for them. Chimpanzees often live in smaller groups in captive settings; however, Chimp Haven integrates them into larger, more species-typical groups. Social integrations, the process of introducing unfamiliar chimpanzees to one another, are often complex in terms of logistics and can be stressful due to the territorial nature of the animals, reduced space in captivity, and the fact that these situations are engineered by humans. From 2005 to 2015, Chimp Haven conducted 225 social integrations including 282 chimpanzees (male: n = 135; female: n = 147). Each integration involved 2 to 26 chimpanzees (mean = 9) and their age ranged from < one year old to 59 years old (mean = 30). We collected data ad libitum during the first 60 min after doors were opened between unfamiliar chimpanzees. The chimpanzees’ affiliative, aggressive, and submissive behaviors were examined, comparing the subject’s sex, rearing history, location/enclosure type, and group size impacts on these behaviors. The subject’s sex, location, and group size were associated with the frequency of affiliative behaviors observed during social integration. All variables except for group size were associated with the frequency of aggressive behavior. The frequency of submissive behavior differed based on the subject’s sex, rearing history, and group size. We were unable to make comparisons between successful and unsuccessful integrations, as most of these integrations were successful.
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Goldsborough Z, Sterck EHM, de Waal FBM, Webb CE. Individual variation in chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) repertoires of abnormal behaviour. Anim Welf 2022. [DOI: 10.7120/09627286.31.1.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022]
Abstract
Abnormal behaviour in captive animals is both pervasive and ambiguous. Although individual differences are central to the field of animal welfare, studies on abnormal behaviour predominantly employ quantitative, population-level approaches. For example, whereas previous studies on chimpanzee
(Pan troglodytes) abnormal behaviour have reported significant variation between groups or individuals in the quantity (eg frequency and duration) of abnormal behaviour, much less is known about qualitative differences. Individual abnormal behavioural repertoires may be highly idiosyncratic,
where certain behaviours are over-represented (ie individually specific abnormal behavioural 'signatures'). The present study investigated qualitative individual variation in the abnormal behaviour of chimpanzees (n = 15) housed at Royal Burgers' Zoo in Arnhem, The Netherlands. Substantial
variation was found between individuals in the diversity (size and evenness) and overall composition of their abnormal behavioural repertoires. Factors including age, sex, and rank did not significantly account for dissimilarity of individuals' abnormal behavioural repertoires, but kin dyads
showed more similar abnormal behaviour than non-kin dyads. Further exploratory analyses examined whether individual variation in one abnormal behaviour (coprophagy) predicted variation in stress-related behaviour (self-scratching). This allowed us to tentatively conclude that there were also
individual differences in the link between a given abnormal behaviour and the behavioural expression of stress. Qualitative individual variation in abnormal behaviour provides a novel angle to a literature traditionally focused on quantifying abnormal behaviour at the group- or species-level
and may thus represent an important yet previously overlooked source of variation in the extent to which abnormal behaviour reflects the state of individual welfare.
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Affiliation(s)
- Z Goldsborough
- Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - EHM Sterck
- Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - FBM de Waal
- Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
| | - CE Webb
- Animal Behaviour & Cognition, Department of Biology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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