科学美国人(翻译)：黑猩猩在果汁喷泉旁聚会时表现出利他主义 2021.3.16

Have you ever done something for someone else—knowing that your actions would solely benefit them and not you? Maybe you opened a door or donated blood or volunteered in a hospital’s ER during the pandemic.

您是否曾经为别人做过某件事-知道您的行为只会使他们受益，而对您却没有好处？在大流行期间，也许您打开了一扇门或献血或自愿去医院的急诊室。

This is called a prosocial behavior. Caregiving, group coordination, conflict resolution, sharing—humans engage in these types of behaviors all the time. We’ve learned that it’s a large part of the reason we’ve succeeded as a species.

But a major question remains in science: Are we the only species who do this?

这被称为亲社会行为。照顾，小组协调，解决冲突，分享—人类一直在从事这些类型的行为。我们了解到，这是我们作为一个物种成功的很大一部分原因。

但是科学中仍然存在一个主要问题：我们是唯一这样做的物种吗？

[CLIP: Chimpanzee sounds]

As one of our closest relatives, chimpanzees have long been studied for signs of this. Their genetic similarities could help us tease out the evolutionary trajectory of the desire to selflessly help others.

作为我们最亲近的亲戚之一，黑猩猩长期以来一直在研究这种现象的迹象。他们的遗传相似性可以帮助我们梳理无私帮助他人的愿望的进化轨迹。

So far, research has provided mixed results on the question. Studies of these animals in the wild and captivity seem to come to different conclusions.Some studies show that chimps cooperatively hunt, share food and console each other.

到目前为止，有关该问题的研究结果不一。对这些动物在野外和圈养的研究似乎得出了不同的结论。

一些研究表明，黑猩猩合作狩猎，共享食物并互相安慰。

But one highly-cited study came to a very different conclusion: it said, “Chimpanzees are indifferent to the welfare of others.” The study used what’s called a “prosocial choice test”—a controlled lab experiment where chimpanzees in enclosures were given two options: push a button to give food to themselves or push the button to give food to themselves and a partner chimp. If they chose the latter, it was seen as a prosocial behavior.

但是，一项引人注目的研究得出了截然不同的结论：它说：“黑猩猩对其他人的福利无动于衷。” 这项研究使用了所谓的“亲社会选择测试”（prosocial choice test）-一项受控的实验室实验，其中圈闭的黑猩猩有两种选择：按一下按钮给自己喂食，或按一下按钮给自己喂食，以及伴侣黑猩猩。如果他们选择后者，那将被视为亲社会行为。

In that study, chimps showed no special preferences for feeding themselves and a friend over feeding just themselves. Enter new research and a remote juice fountain.

在那项研究中，黑猩猩对自己和朋友的供养没有特别的偏好。 

输入新的研究成果和一个远程果汁喷泉。

“We installed a button and a concrete fountain into the chimpanzees’ outer enclosures. The fountain was then hooked up to a large container of juice places outside the enclosure. When an individual pushes the button, it releases juice from the fountain. However, since the button and fountain are approximately five meters apart, the individual pushing cannot directly drink from the fountain. And if any other chimpanzees are at the fountain when the button is pushed, they, and not the pusher, will be able to drink the juice.”

“我们在黑猩猩的外壳中安装了一个按钮和一个混凝土喷泉。然后将喷泉钩到外壳外部的一个大果汁容器中。当一个人按下按钮时，它会从喷泉中释放出果汁。但是，由于按钮和喷泉之间的距离大约为五米，因此单个推动不能直接从喷泉中饮用。当按下按钮时，如果在喷泉旁还有其他黑猩猩，则它们（而不是按钮）将能够喝果汁。”

That’s Sarah DeTroy of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig.Compared to previous controlled lab-based experiments, the setup for this was very naturalistic, and DeTroy says chimpanzees were able to interact with the fountain in their social groups. In this context, they discovered a willingness to act in the interest of others, with individual chimpanzees prepared to activate the fountain without benefitting themselves.

那是莱比锡马克斯·普朗克进化人类学研究所的莎拉·德特罗伊（Sarah DeTroy）。

与之前的受控实验室实验相比，该实验的设置非常自然，DeTroy说，黑猩猩能够与社交团体中的喷泉互动。在这种情况下，他们发现愿意为他人的利益而行动，而个体黑猩猩准备激活喷泉而不会使自己受益。

“We found that many of the chimpanzees were willing to prosocially provide valuable resources to the group members even if they couldn’t benefit themselves from their behavior. And this behavior also increased over time. We can’t, of course, know what the chimpanzees actual reasons and motivations for pushing the buttons were. But the fact that they were willing, over the course of two months, to repeatedly perform an action to which they had very little direct benefits is really fascinating and displays a high capacity for prosocial behavior.”

“我们发现，许多黑猩猩都愿意向团体成员提供有价值的资源，即使他们无法从自己的行为中受益。随着时间的流逝，这种行为也有所增加。当然，我们无法知道黑猩猩按下按钮的实际原因和动机。但是，他们愿意在两个月的时间内重复执行一项对他们几乎没有直接好处的行动，这一事实的确令人着迷，并表现出很高的亲社会行为能力。”

The degree of this prosocial behavior varied among three different groupings of chimps who were tested. They observed how groups who were more socially tolerant and felt comfortable around group members when in competitive situations were more likely to behave prosocially—particularly more toward group members for whom they have an existing bond, namely kinship.

在三个不同的黑猩猩群体中，这种亲社会行为的程度有所不同。他们观察到在竞争情况下，更能容忍社会的群体和在群体成员周围感到自在的群体更有可能表现出亲切的行为，尤其是对那些已经拥有亲缘关系（即亲属关系）的群体成员。

“Our findings that chimpanzees can indeed behave prosocially and moreover show group deficiencies in their behavior suggest there is a lot we don’t yet know about their sociality. We might be more similar than we thought, and prosociality might have had a stronger role in shaping chimpanzees social behavior than previously assumed. We need more research to better understand the extent of chimpanzee prosociality, which will be able to inform us about the evolutionary past of our own unique human sociality.”

“我们的发现表明，黑猩猩确实可以表现得很亲切，而且还显示出群体行为上的缺陷，这表明我们对黑猩猩的社交性尚不了解。我们可能比我们想像的更加相似，并且亲密性在塑造黑猩猩的社会行为方面可能比以前设想的具有更强大的作用。我们需要做更多的研究，以更好地了解黑猩猩的亲近程度，这将使我们了解自己独特的人类社会的进化过去。”

Further research may reveal what lies behind their prosocial motivations. But for now, it’s safe to assume that chimpanzees are not simply—and you’ll forgive the pun—aping human behavior.

Their research is featured in the journal Science Advances. [Edwin J. C. van Leeuwen et al., “Chimpanzees behave prosocially in a group-specific manner”]

进一步的研究可能揭示他们亲社会动机背后的原因。但就目前而言，可以安全地假设黑猩猩并不是简单地-并且您会原谅双关语-在人类行为上大做文章。

他们的研究发表在《科学进展》杂志上。 [Edwin JC van Leeuwen等人，“黑猩猩以特定于群体的方式表现出类似的行为”]

 —Mark Stratton

—来自Mark Stratton