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A Fruit In The Hand Or Two In The Bush? Divergent Risk Preferences In Chimpanzees And Bonobos, Sarah R. Heilbronner, Alexandra G. Rosati, Jeffrey R. Stevens, Brian Hare, Marc D. Hauser

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Human and non-human animals tend to avoid risky prospects. If such patterns of economic choice are adaptive, risk preferences should reflect the typical decision-making environments faced by organisms. However, this approach has not been widely used to examine the risk sensitivity in closely related species with different ecologies. Here, we experimentally examined risk-sensitive behavior in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (Pan paniscus), closely related species whose distinct ecologies are thought to be the major selective force shaping their unique behavioral repertoires. Because chimpanzees exploit riskier food sources in the wild, we predicted that they would exhibit …