PSYC 320 Lecture Notes - Lecture 32: Frans De Waal, Dorothy Cheney, Robert Seyfarth

• School: American River College
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 320
• Professor: Mitchell

Document Summary

Kin selection provides a partial explanation for helping. Relatives are not always helpful to each other. And even though relatives may get preferential treatment, most people help out non-kin as well. Robert trivers cites several examples of reciprocal altruism in animals. Many animals groom each other; cats groom other cats. Large fish allow small fish to swim in their mouths without eating them; the small fish get food for themselves and at the same time remove parasites from the larger fish. Chimps who share with others at a feeding are repaid by the other chimps at another feeding; those who are selfish are rejected, sometimes violently, at a later feeding. Learning to cooperate, therefore, can be rewarding for both parties. Frans de waal and michelle berger observed same-sex pairs of monkeys working cooperatively to obtain a tray of food. The two monkeys were separated from each other.