评论
打印
Sharing is one of the hallmarks of human behavior: give me a cookie and I'm more likely to give you one later. But our bonobo cousins have an odd variation on the practice. They share with strangers before friends. The finding is in the journal PLoS ONE.
分享是人类行为的显著特征之一：如果有人给我一块甜点，那么稍后我肯定会还他一块。但我们的近亲倭黑猩猩则表现得很怪异。他们会先与陌生人分享，然后才与朋友分享。这项发现刊登在《公共科学图书馆·综合》上。
Researchers tested bonobo sharing in experiments involving fourteen of the apes. All were born in the wild. In the primary experiment, bonobos were placed in a cage with food, and they could choose to admit either a known member of their group, a stranger, or both. In 51 trials, most bonobos shared the feast, but they let the stranger in first.
研究人员在实验中测试了14只黑猩猩的分享习惯。他们都出生在野外。在此实验中，将倭黑猩猩关在放有食物的笼子里，他们可以识别其他小组成员是熟人，还是陌生人。在51项测试中，大对数倭黑猩猩都款待了其他猩猩，不过他们会先款待陌生的猩猩。
Why choose an outsider over a friend? In another experiment, the scientists found bonobos only shared when doing so led to a social interaction. Giving up some food to strangers lets these apes expand their social network. This behavior may have evolved to promote social tolerance, in contrast with chimps' sometimes deadly aggression against strangers. Which means that even when food is offered, there's still no such thing as a free lunch.
为什么他们把局外人看得比朋友还重要？在另一项试验中，科学家们发现倭黑猩猩只有在参与社会互动时才会这么做。放弃一些食物给陌生人，这样能够扩大黑猩猩的社交网路。这种行为的进化可能是为了促进社会的包容性，黑猩猩则与之相反，他们有时会拼死攻击陌生人。这意味着，尽管有人送你食物，但天下还是没有免费的午餐。
原文译文属可可原创，未经允许请勿转载！
