Esther Herrmann
Biographic Data
| ID | 114204 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Esther Herrmann |
| GIVEN NAMES | Esther |
| FAMILY NAME | Herrmann |
| SIGNATURE | HERRMANN E |
| AFFILIATIONS | Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 125 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2007 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
How can I find what I want? Can children, chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys form abstract representations to guide their behavior in a sampling task
concepts are a powerful tool for making wide-ranging predictions in new situations based on little experience. Whereas looking-time studies suggest an early emergence of this ability in human infancy, other paradigms like the relational match to sample task often fail to detect abstract concepts until late preschool years. Similarly, non-human animals show difficulties and often succeed only after long training regimes. Given the considerable inf…
Do chimpanzees reason logically
Psychologists disagree about the development of logical concepts such as or and not. While some theorists argue that infants reason logically, others maintain that logical inference is contingent on linguistic abilities and emerges around age 4. In this Registered Report, we conducted five experiments on logical reasoning in chimpanzees. Subjects (N = 16; 10 females; M = 24 years) participated in the same setup that has been administered to child…
How children revise their beliefs in light of reasons
We investigate how the ability to respond appropriately to reasons provided in discourse develops in young children. In Study 1 (N = 58, Germany, 26 girls), 4- and 5-, but not 3-year-old children, differentiated good from bad reasons. In Study 2 (N = 131, Germany, 64 girls), 4- and 5-year-old children considered both the strength of evidence for their initial belief and the quality of socially provided reasons for an alternative view when decidin…
Helping in young children and chimpanzees shows partiality towards friends
Young children’s reputational strategies in a peer group context
Reputational concerns are known to promote cooperation. Individuals regularly act more prosocially when their behavior is observable by others. Here, we investigate 4- and 5-year-old (N = 144) children's reputational strategies in a competitive group setting. The aim of the current study was to explore whether children's sharing behavior is affected by the future possibility of being singled out publicly as the most generous or, alternatively, th…
The effects of social context and food abundance on chimpanzee feeding competition
Feeding competition is thought to play a role in primate social organization as well as cognitive evolution. For chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), social and ecological factors can affect competition, yet how these factors interact to affect feeding behavior is not fully understood; they can be difficult to disentangle in wild settings. This experiment investigated the differential effects of food quantity, the presence of a co-feeding partner, and …
An investigation of children's strategies for overcoming the tragedy of the commons
Do young children preferentially trust gossip or firsthand observation in choosing a collaborative partner
From early on in ontogeny, young children hear things being said about particular individuals. Here we investigate the ways in which testimony with social content, that is, gossip, influences children's decision‐making. We explored whether five‐year‐old ( N = 72) and seven‐year‐old ( N = 72) children trust gossip or firsthand observation in a partner choice setting. Seven‐year‐old children preferentially trusted what they had seen firsthand over …
Two Key Steps in the Evolution of Human Cooperation: The Interdependence Hypothesis
Modern theories of the evolution of human cooperation focus mainly on altruism. In contrast, we propose that humans' species-unique forms of cooperation-as well as their species-unique forms of cognition, communication, and social life-all derive from mutualistic collaboration (with social selection against cheaters). In a first step, humans became obligate collaborative foragers such that individuals were interdependent with one another and so h…
Bonobos have a more human-like second-to-fourth finger length ratio (2D): (4D) than chimpanzees: a hypothesized indication of lower prenatal androgens
Humans Have Evolved Specialized Skills of Social Cognition: The Cultural Intelligence Hypothesis
Humans have many cognitive skills not possessed by their nearest primate relatives. The cultural intelligence hypothesis argues that this is mainly due to a species-specific set of social-cognitive skills, emerging early in ontogeny, for participating and exchanging knowledge in cultural groups. We tested this hypothesis by giving a comprehensive battery of cognitive tests to large numbers of two of humans' closest primate relatives, chimpanzees …
Two Key Steps in the Evolution of Human Cooperation: The Interdependence Hypothesis
Modern theories of the evolution of human cooperation focus mainly on altruism. In contrast, we propose that humans' species-unique forms of cooperation-as well as their species-unique forms of cognition, communication, and social life-all derive from mutualistic collaboration (with social selection against cheaters). In a first step, humans became obligate collaborative foragers such that individuals were interdependent with one another and so h…
Bonobos have a more human-like second-to-fourth finger length ratio (2D): (4D) than chimpanzees: a hypothesized indication of lower prenatal androgens
Young children’s reputational strategies in a peer group context
Reputational concerns are known to promote cooperation. Individuals regularly act more prosocially when their behavior is observable by others. Here, we investigate 4- and 5-year-old (N = 144) children's reputational strategies in a competitive group setting. The aim of the current study was to explore whether children's sharing behavior is affected by the future possibility of being singled out publicly as the most generous or, alternatively, th…
An investigation of children's strategies for overcoming the tragedy of the commons
Humans Have Evolved Specialized Skills of Social Cognition: The Cultural Intelligence Hypothesis
Humans have many cognitive skills not possessed by their nearest primate relatives. The cultural intelligence hypothesis argues that this is mainly due to a species-specific set of social-cognitive skills, emerging early in ontogeny, for participating and exchanging knowledge in cultural groups. We tested this hypothesis by giving a comprehensive battery of cognitive tests to large numbers of two of humans' closest primate relatives, chimpanzees …
Bonobos have a more human-like second-to-fourth finger length ratio (2D): (4D) than chimpanzees: a hypothesized indication of lower prenatal androgens
Two Key Steps in the Evolution of Human Cooperation: The Interdependence Hypothesis
Modern theories of the evolution of human cooperation focus mainly on altruism. In contrast, we propose that humans' species-unique forms of cooperation-as well as their species-unique forms of cognition, communication, and social life-all derive from mutualistic collaboration (with social selection against cheaters). In a first step, humans became obligate collaborative foragers such that individuals were interdependent with one another and so h…
Do young children preferentially trust gossip or firsthand observation in choosing a collaborative partner
From early on in ontogeny, young children hear things being said about particular individuals. Here we investigate the ways in which testimony with social content, that is, gossip, influences children's decision‐making. We explored whether five‐year‐old ( N = 72) and seven‐year‐old ( N = 72) children trust gossip or firsthand observation in a partner choice setting. Seven‐year‐old children preferentially trusted what they had seen firsthand over …
The effects of social context and food abundance on chimpanzee feeding competition
Feeding competition is thought to play a role in primate social organization as well as cognitive evolution. For chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), social and ecological factors can affect competition, yet how these factors interact to affect feeding behavior is not fully understood; they can be difficult to disentangle in wild settings. This experiment investigated the differential effects of food quantity, the presence of a co-feeding partner, and …
An investigation of children's strategies for overcoming the tragedy of the commons
Helping in young children and chimpanzees shows partiality towards friends
Young children’s reputational strategies in a peer group context
Reputational concerns are known to promote cooperation. Individuals regularly act more prosocially when their behavior is observable by others. Here, we investigate 4- and 5-year-old (N = 144) children's reputational strategies in a competitive group setting. The aim of the current study was to explore whether children's sharing behavior is affected by the future possibility of being singled out publicly as the most generous or, alternatively, th…
How children revise their beliefs in light of reasons
We investigate how the ability to respond appropriately to reasons provided in discourse develops in young children. In Study 1 (N = 58, Germany, 26 girls), 4- and 5-, but not 3-year-old children, differentiated good from bad reasons. In Study 2 (N = 131, Germany, 64 girls), 4- and 5-year-old children considered both the strength of evidence for their initial belief and the quality of socially provided reasons for an alternative view when decidin…
Do chimpanzees reason logically
Psychologists disagree about the development of logical concepts such as or and not. While some theorists argue that infants reason logically, others maintain that logical inference is contingent on linguistic abilities and emerges around age 4. In this Registered Report, we conducted five experiments on logical reasoning in chimpanzees. Subjects (N = 16; 10 females; M = 24 years) participated in the same setup that has been administered to child…
How can I find what I want? Can children, chimpanzees and capuchin monkeys form abstract representations to guide their behavior in a sampling task
concepts are a powerful tool for making wide-ranging predictions in new situations based on little experience. Whereas looking-time studies suggest an early emergence of this ability in human infancy, other paradigms like the relational match to sample task often fail to detect abstract concepts until late preschool years. Similarly, non-human animals show difficulties and often succeed only after long training regimes. Given the considerable inf…
Psychology (11 works) · Developmental psychology (9 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Child and Animal Learning Development (7 works) · Primate Behavior and Ecology (6 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Biology (3 works) · Cognition (3 works) · Cognitive psychology (3 works) · Ecology (3 works)