Chimps Might Perform Difficult Tasks Better When Watched: Study

A recent study suggests that chimpanzees, much like humans, perform better on difficult tasks when they have an audience. Conducted by researchers at Kyoto University in Japan, the study examined whether the "audience effect" — where performance is influenced by the presence of onlookers — is present in non-human primates. This effect is well-documented in human societies, where reputation management plays a significant role, but it was previously unclear if similar influences affect chimpanzees, who also live within social hierarchies.

Published in the journal iScience, the study analyzed data from six chimpanzees over six years, observing them as they completed cognitive tasks on a touchscreen. In total, over 2,100 sessions involving number-based tasks were examined. The researchers found that the chimpanzees’ performance varied depending on task difficulty and the size of the audience watching them. For the most challenging tasks, the chimps performed better with a larger audience, while their performance on simpler tasks declined under increased observation.

Study author Christen Lin expressed surprise at these findings, noting the unexpected impact of human spectators on chimpanzee behavior. "One might not expect a chimp to particularly care if another species is watching them perform a task," Lin said, “but the fact that they seem to be affected by human audiences even depending on the difficulty of the task suggests that this relationship is more complex than we would have initially expected.”

The findings hint that the audience effect might predate the evolution of reputation-based societies in humans, suggesting that attention to onlookers could be a deeply rooted trait in the primate lineage. Shinya Yamamoto, another author of the study, noted that while humans are often seen as uniquely responsive to being watched, this may not be entirely species-specific. The study points to a broader evolutionary basis for behavior influenced by social presence, one that might be common across great apes.

However, the exact mechanisms behind these audience effects remain unclear, even in humans. The researchers propose further studies on non-human apes to explore how this characteristic evolved and how it might relate to reputation. They suggest that audience-awareness behaviors might have been present long before complex social structures based on reputation emerged in humans.

“These audience-related characteristics are core to how our societies operate around reputation,” said Yamamoto. “If chimpanzees pay attention to audience members while performing tasks, it’s reasonable to think that these traits could have evolved in our shared lineage long before the sophisticated reputation systems of human societies developed.”

The study provides valuable insights into the social complexities of chimpanzees, suggesting a shared foundation with humans in how social observation affects behavior, potentially illuminating an evolutionary origin of reputation-linked behaviors.

(This article is a reworked version of a PTI feed)