Coordination strategies of chimpanzees and human children in a stag hunt game

Much of human cooperation takes place in mutualistic contexts in which the main challenge for individuals is how to coordinate decisions. In the current studies, we compared the abilities of chimpanzees and young children to coordinate with a partner in two versions of a Stag Hunt game. When risks were low (the hare was of low value) and information was cheap (the partner's behaviour was readily observable), partners of both species were able to successfully coordinate on the higher value stag more than 90% of the time. By contrast, when the risks were raised and observing the partner was more difficult, the chimpanzees became less successful, whereas the children compensated, and so remained highly successful, by communicating more often and more specifically. This pattern of results is consistent with the hypothesis that humans evolved unique skills of coordination and communication in the context of especially risky coordination problems.

人类的多数合作行为均发生在互利情境中，此时个体面临的核心挑战是如何协调决策。在本研究中，我们对比了黑猩猩与幼儿在两种版本的猎鹿博弈（Stag Hunt game）中与搭档开展协调的能力。当风险较低（野兔价值不高）且信息获取成本低廉（搭档的行为易于观测）时，两个物种的搭档均能以超过90%的成功率，成功协调至收益更高的猎鹿策略。与之相对，当风险升高且观测搭档行为的难度增大时，黑猩猩的协调成功率随之下降；而幼儿则通过更频繁且更具针对性地进行沟通来弥补劣势，从而始终保持较高的协调成功率。这一结果模式与"人类在高风险协调问题的演化背景下，进化出了独特的协调与沟通技能"这一假说相符。