Reduced risk-seeking in chimpanzees in a zero-outcome game

Author:

Keupp Stefanie12ORCID,Grueneisen Sebastian34,Ludvig Elliot A.1ORCID,Warneken Felix3ORCID,Melis Alicia P.2ORCID

Affiliation:

1. Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, University Road, Coventry CV4 7AL, UK

2. Experimental Psychology, University College London, 26 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AP, UK

3. Department of Psychology, University of Michigan, 530 Church Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1043, USA

4. Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Lentzeallee 94, 14195 Berlin, Germany

Abstract

A key component of economic decisions is the integration of information about reward outcomes and probabilities in selecting between competing options. In many species, risky choice is influenced by the magnitude of available outcomes, probability of success and the possibility of extreme outcomes. Chimpanzees are generally regarded to be risk-seeking. In this study, we examined two aspects of chimpanzees' risk preferences: first, whether setting the value of the non-preferred outcome of a risky option to zero changes chimpanzees’ risk preferences, and second, whether individual risk preferences are stable across two different measures. Across two experiments, we found chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes , n = 23) as a group to be risk-neutral to risk-avoidant with highly stable individual risk preferences. We discuss how the possibility of going empty-handed might reduce chimpanzees' risk-seeking relative to previous studies. This malleability in risk preferences as a function of experimental parameters and individual differences raises interesting questions about whether it is appropriate or helpful to categorize a species as a whole as risk-seeking or risk-avoidant. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Existence and prevalence of economic behaviours among non-human primates’.

Funder

H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Economic and Social Research Council

Publisher

The Royal Society

Subject

General Agricultural and Biological Sciences,General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology

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