Sarah F Brosnan
Biographic Data
| ID | 118083 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sarah F Brosnan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sarah F |
| FAMILY NAME | Brosnan |
| SIGNATURE | BROSNAN S F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Georgia State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5117-6706 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 35 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 38 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
No Response to Inconsistently Experienced Inequity in Four Primate Species
Understanding when and how nonhuman primates respond to inequity is essential for uncovering the evolutionary roots of human fairness. Previous studies have shown that some species will refuse to participate or refuse rewards in some contexts when outcomes are unequal, but in these studies, subjects experienced inequity on every trial. This is likely not a realistic reflection of daily life, and we do not know whether these responses persist when…
Capuchin monkeys' ( Sapajus [Cebus] apella ) categorization of photos of unknown male conspecifics suggests attention to fWHR and a dominance bias
The ability to quickly perceive others' rank minimizes costs by helping individuals behave appropriately when interacting with strangers. Indeed, humans and at least some other species can quickly determine strangers' rank or dominance based only on physical features without observing others' interactions or behavior. Nonhuman primates can determine strangers' ranks by observing their interactions, and some evidence suggests that at least some cu…
In memory of our mentor
The world lost a towering figure when primatologist Frans de Waal passed away on March 14, 2024. Many are aware of his multitude of contributions to the field. His ability to see what animals were actually doing changed how we viewed first primates, then other species. He shared these insights through both traditional scientific outputs, such as journal articles and scientific presentations, and less common outputs, such as 15 books and two TED t…
Challenges and promises of big team comparative cognition
Using an evolutionary approach to improve predictive ability in the social sciences
From the perspective of other disciplines, evolutionary approaches more often provide explanation and coherence than they help to solve discrete problems. We believe that more examples of the latter sort will help both with disciplinary synthesis and with the advance of knowledge. Here we describe a 20-year arc of research to demonstrate the problem-solving utility of an evolutionary perspective by focusing, as a case study, on a particular cogni…
A comparative perspective on the human sense of justice
State‐dependent risky choices in primates
Economic models predict that rational decision makers' choices between a constant, “safe” option and a variable, “risky” option leading, on average, to the same payoff, should be random. However, a wealth of research has revealed that, when faced with risky decisions, both human and nonhuman animals deviate from economic rationality. According to the risk‐sensitivity theory, individuals should prefer a safe option when they are in a positive ener…
Oxytocin increases during fur‐rubbing regardless of level of social contact in tufted capuchin monkeys
Social interactions induce oxytocin release in many social species, suggesting that oxytocin is a critical part of social bonding among individuals. However, oxytocin also increases as a result of physical contact and stimulation, making it unclear which features of affiliative behaviors (for instance, social interaction or physical contact with a conspecific) drive the oxytocin increase observed after engaging in these behaviors. We attempted to…
Cooperation and Conflict
Understanding the interaction between cooperation and conflict in establishing effective social behaviour is a fundamental challenge facing societies. Reflecting the breadth of current research in this area, this volume brings together experts from biology to political science to examine the cooperation–conflict interface at multiple levels, from genes to human societies. Exploring both the exciting new directions and the biggest challenges in th…
Frans B. M. de Waal
Introduction to pioneers in primatology
As a relatively young discipline, primatology is lucky to still have many of its pioneering researchers active in the field. At the 2019 American Society of Primatology meeting, I convened the inaugural Pioneers in Primatology symposium to bring together a selection of these researchers to reflect on their careers, with a focus on the stories that defined their work and their thoughts on the important future directions for the field. After the sy…
Anything for a cheerio
Unequal outcomes disrupt cooperation in some situations, but this has not been tested in the context of coordination in economic games. To explore this, we tested brown capuchins ( Sapajus [Cebus] apella ) on a manual version of the Stag Hunt (or Assurance) Game, in which individuals sequentially chose between two options, Stag or Hare , and were rewarded according to their choices and that of their partner. Typically, coordination on Stag result…
Western lowland gorillas ( Gorilla gorilla gorilla ) do not show an aversion to inequity in a token exchange task
Although individuals in some species refuse foods they normally accept if their partner receives a more preferred one, this is not true across all species. The cooperation hypothesis proposes that this species‐level variability evolved because inequity aversion is a mechanism to identify situations in which cooperation is not paying off, and that species regularly observed cooperating should be more likely to be averse to inequity. To rule out ot…
Predicting variation in endowment effect magnitudes
Capuchin monkeys ( Sapajus [ Cebus ] apella ) play Nash equilibria in dynamic games, but their decisions are likely not influenced by oxytocin
Comparative approaches to experimental economics have shed light on the evolution of social decision‐making across a range of primate species, including humans. Here we replicate our previous work looking at six pairs of capuchin monkeys' ( Sapajus [Cebus] apella ) responses to scenarios requiring both coordination (Assurance Game) and anti‐coordination (Hawk‐Dove Game). This then provides a foundation for assessing their responses to two additio…
The Evolution of Justice
Where does the human sense of justice come from? An emerging view in the sciences is that the biological foundation of humans’ systems of justice and fairness can be found in the behaviors of other species. This chapter considers what studying other species can and cannot tell us about the evolution of justice and fairness and argues that the foundations of fairness are evolutionarily ancient and based on the need to maintain a relative balance a…
Urinary oxytocin in capuchin monkeys
In highly social species, like primates, oxytocin plays an important role in cooperation, and in the formation and maintenance of social relationships. Despite recent interest in the relationship between oxytocin and social behavior in nonhuman primates, relatively little is known about endogenous oxytocin in social New World Monkeys. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between oxytocin and affiliative behaviors in socially-housed capt…
Insights into human cooperation from comparative economics
Frans de Waal
Frans de Waal’s (1982), Chimpanzee Politics
Chimpanzees copy dominant and knowledgeable individuals
Developing a comprehensive and comparative questionnaire for measuring personality in chimpanzees using a simultaneous top‐down/bottom‐up design
One effective method for measuring personality in primates is to use personality trait ratings to distill the experience of people familiar with the individual animals. Previous rating instruments were created using either top-down or bottom-up approaches. Top-down approaches, which essentially adapt instruments originally designed for use with another species, can unfortunately lead to the inclusion of traits irrelevant to chimpanzees or fail to…
Evolution and the expression of biases
Cognitive and behavioral biases, which are widespread among humans, have recently been demonstrated in other primates, suggesting a common origin. Here we examine whether the expression of one shared bias, the endowment effect, varies as a function of context. We tested whether objects lacking inherent value elicited a stronger endowment effect (or preference for keeping the object) in a context in which the objects had immediate instrumental val…
The ontogeny of human prosociality
To Each According to his Need? Variability in the Responses to Inequity in Non-Human Primates
A proximate perspective on reciprocal altruism
Monkeys reject unequal pay
Responses to a simple barter task in chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes
Nonhuman Species’ Reactions to Inequity and their Implications for Fairness
Partner's behavior, not reward distribution, determines success in an unequal cooperative task in capuchin monkeys
It was recently demonstrated that capuchin monkeys notice and respond to distributional inequity, a trait that has been proposed to support the evolution of cooperation in the human species. However, it is unknown how capuchins react to inequitable rewards in an unrestricted cooperative paradigm in which they may freely choose both whether to participate and, within the bounds of their partner's behavior, which reward they will receive for their …
Exploration of culture in chimpanzees
Nonhuman Species’ Reactions to Inequity and their Implications for Fairness
At a Crossroads of Disciplines
Cebus apella Tolerate Intermittent Unreliability in Human Experimenters
Competing demands of prosociality and equity in monkeys
Male chimpanzees' grooming rates vary by female age, parity, and fertility status
Copulation preferences in our closest living relative, the chimpanzee, suggest that males prefer older females who have had previous offspring. However, this finding is counter to some behavioral models, which predict that chimpanzee males, as promiscuous breeders with minimal costs to mating, should show little or no preference when choosing mating partners (e.g. should mate indiscriminately). To determine if the preferences indicated by copulat…
Property in nonhuman primates
Property is rare in most nonhuman primates, most likely because their lifestyles are not conducive to it. Nonetheless, just because these species do not frequently maintain property does not mean that they lack the propensity to do so. Primates show respect for possession, as well as behaviors related to property, such as irrational decision making regarding property (e.g., the endowment effect) and barter. The limiting factor in species other th…
Evolution and the expression of biases
Cognitive and behavioral biases, which are widespread among humans, have recently been demonstrated in other primates, suggesting a common origin. Here we examine whether the expression of one shared bias, the endowment effect, varies as a function of context. We tested whether objects lacking inherent value elicited a stronger endowment effect (or preference for keeping the object) in a context in which the objects had immediate instrumental val…
The ontogeny of human prosociality
To Each According to his Need? Variability in the Responses to Inequity in Non-Human Primates
Fairness in Animals
"Introduction to "Justice in Animals
Developing a comprehensive and comparative questionnaire for measuring personality in chimpanzees using a simultaneous top‐down/bottom‐up design
One effective method for measuring personality in primates is to use personality trait ratings to distill the experience of people familiar with the individual animals. Previous rating instruments were created using either top-down or bottom-up approaches. Top-down approaches, which essentially adapt instruments originally designed for use with another species, can unfortunately lead to the inclusion of traits irrelevant to chimpanzees or fail to…
Chimpanzees copy dominant and knowledgeable individuals
Frans de Waal
Frans de Waal’s (1982), Chimpanzee Politics
The Evolution of Justice
Where does the human sense of justice come from? An emerging view in the sciences is that the biological foundation of humans’ systems of justice and fairness can be found in the behaviors of other species. This chapter considers what studying other species can and cannot tell us about the evolution of justice and fairness and argues that the foundations of fairness are evolutionarily ancient and based on the need to maintain a relative balance a…
Urinary oxytocin in capuchin monkeys
In highly social species, like primates, oxytocin plays an important role in cooperation, and in the formation and maintenance of social relationships. Despite recent interest in the relationship between oxytocin and social behavior in nonhuman primates, relatively little is known about endogenous oxytocin in social New World Monkeys. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between oxytocin and affiliative behaviors in socially-housed capt…
Insights into human cooperation from comparative economics
Capuchin monkeys ( Sapajus [ Cebus ] apella ) play Nash equilibria in dynamic games, but their decisions are likely not influenced by oxytocin
Comparative approaches to experimental economics have shed light on the evolution of social decision‐making across a range of primate species, including humans. Here we replicate our previous work looking at six pairs of capuchin monkeys' ( Sapajus [Cebus] apella ) responses to scenarios requiring both coordination (Assurance Game) and anti‐coordination (Hawk‐Dove Game). This then provides a foundation for assessing their responses to two additio…
Psychology (29 works) · Primate Behavior and Ecology (25 works) · Social Psychology (20 works) · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (17 works) · Computer Science (16 works) · Biology (15 works) · Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (15 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Economics (13 works) · Political science (12 works)