Bonobos Research Paper

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Cooperation Across Social Borders in Bonobos

Human societies highly value cooperation. It even extends to interactions with strangers, also known as out-groups. It is not just humans that demonstrate this; close relatives of humans, bonobos, also display cooperative behaviors with strangers from other groups. They engage in activities like sharing food, grooming, and forming alliances. This indicates that cooperation among distantly related individuals, without expecting an immediate benefit, may not be exclusive to humans.

Researchers set out to explore the evolution of cooperation in humans through studying cooperation in bonobos. They studied how bonobos interact with individuals from the same group and with an out-group by observing 31 adult bonobos from two different social groups– the Ekalakala and Kokoalongo. Over two years, they saw the group meet 95 times. These encounters were sometimes shorter than an hour and sometimes lasted 14 consecutive days. …show more content…
They also found that bonobos choose who they cooperate with, favouring those who share their cooperative instincts. Cooperation assortment is the name given to this phenomena and it allows bonobos to benefit more. Bonobo’s who showed cooperative behaviour within their own group were more likely to cooperate with out-group members. Especially out-group members who regularly work within their group. Bonobos who shared food or created alliances within their own group were more likely to do the same with those from the out-group. Grooming didn’t show the same pattern. Bonobos that shared food more within group members also tended to be less aggressive toward out-group members. Finally, bonobos that groomed or shared food with more bonobos were more likely to receive the same from more
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