YOU probably aren’t much smarter than a chimp when it comes to cooperative games – you just know the rules.
Games are often used to test primates’ ability to reason about cooperation. In one game two players independently choose one of two tokens: one that always yields a small reward, or one that gives a big reward only if both players choose it.
Humans quickly settle into the second strategy to maximise the reward, but other primates prove less able. Is this down to better reasoning, or merely because humans have had the rules explained to them?
Sarah Brosnan, at…
