Frans B M De Waal
Biographic Data
| ID | 3620531 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Frans B M De Waal |
| GIVEN NAMES | Frans B M |
| FAMILY NAME | De Waal |
| SIGNATURE | DE WAAL F B M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Emory University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 63 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 139 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 61 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1976 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Within-species variation eclipses between-species differences in Pan consolation
Empathy and its subcomponents are well documented throughout the animal kingdom, indicating the deep evolutionary origins of this socioemotional capacity. A key behavioural marker of empathy is consolation, or unsolicited bystander affiliation directed towards distressed others. Consolation has been observed in our closest living relatives, bonobos ( Pan paniscus ) and chimpanzees ( P. troglodytes ). However, systematic comparisons are absent, de…
Comparative Perspectives of Empathy Development
Empathy—the sharing and understanding of others’ emotions and thoughts—is considered a defining feature of what it means to be human. Although empathy underpins many of our social interactions and is thought to be evolutionarily ancient, its origins remain relatively obscure. Here, this chapter presents research investigating socioemotional development in our closest living relatives, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and bonobos (P. paniscus), to id…
Do chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) console a bereaved mother?
Comparative thanatology encompasses the study of death-related responses in non-human animals and aspires to elucidate the evolutionary origins of human behavior in the context of death. Many reports have revealed that humans are not the only species affected by the death of group members. Non-human primates in particular show behaviors such as congregating around the deceased, carrying the corpse for prolonged periods of time (predominantly moth…
Chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ) tolerate some degree of inequity while cooperating but refuse to donate effort for nothing
In cooperative hunting, a carcass cannot be divided equally, and hunts may be unsuccessful. We studied how chimpanzees respond to these two variables, working for unequal rewards and no rewards, which have been rarely included in experimental cooperative tasks. We presented chimpanzees with a task requiring three chimpanzees to work together and varied the reward structure in two separate experiments. In Experiment 1, two individuals received mor…
The influence of phylogeny, social style, and sociodemographic factors on macaque social network structure
Among nonhuman primates, the evolutionary underpinnings of variation in social structure remain debated, with both ancestral relationships and adaptation to current conditions hypothesized to play determining roles. Here we assess whether interspecific variation in higher-order aspects of female macaque (genus: Macaca) dominance and grooming social structure show phylogenetic signals, that is, greater similarity among more closely-related species…
Mammalian empathy
Chimpanzee uses manipulative gaze cues to conceal and reveal information to foraging competitor
Tactical deception has been widely reported in primates on a functional basis, but details of behavioral mechanisms are usually unspecified. We tested a pair of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in the informed forager paradigm, in which the subordinate saw the location of hidden food and the dominant did not. We employed cross-correlations to examine temporal contingencies between chimpanzees' behavior: specifically how the direction of the subordin…
Using cross correlations to investigate how chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ) use conspecific gaze cues to extract and exploit information in a foraging competition
In a dyadic informed forager task, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) are known to exploit the knowledge of informed subordinates; however, the behavioral mechanisms they employ are unknown. It is tempting to interpret outcome measures, such as which individual obtained the food, in a cognitively richer way than the outcomes may justify. We employed a different approach from prior research, asking how chimpanzees compete by maneuvering around each oth…
Perseverance and food sharing among closely affiliated female chimpanzees
Hierarchical Steepness, Counter‐Aggression, and Macaque Social Style Scale
Nonhuman primates show remarkable variation in several aspects of social structure. One way to characterize this variation in the genus M acaca is through the concept of social style, which is based on the observation that several social traits appear to covary with one another in a linear or at least continuous manner. In practice, macaques are more simply characterized as fitting a four‐grade scale in which species range from extremely despotic…
Obituary
Fairness in Animals
Observer choices during experimental foraging tasks in brown capuchin monkeys ( Cebus apella )
We investigated whether capuchin monkeys ( Cebus apella ) would choose to observe a high‐ or low‐status adult female from their group during experimental foraging tests. The subject was located in the center of a test chamber, with a low‐ and high‐ranking demonstrator on either side of two partitions. A peephole allowed the subject to observe the models by looking through either respective partition. Each model was trained on one of the two diffe…
Third‐party postconflict affiliation of aggressors in chimpanzees
Postconflict management strategies have been defined as any postconflict interaction that mitigates the negative consequences of the preceding agonistic conflict. Although most studies have investigated postconflict interactions between former opponents or between victims and uninvolved bystanders, interactions between aggressors and bystanders have received much less attention. In this study, we examined a database of 1,102 agonistic interaction…
Rencontre avec Frans de Waal. L'empathie, des animaux aux humains
Competing demands of prosociality and equity in monkeys
Social facilitation of exploratory foraging behavior in capuchin monkeys ( Cebus apella )
Much of the research on animal social learning focuses on complex cognitive functions such as imitation and emulation. When compelling evidence for such processes is not forthcoming, simpler processes are often assumed but rarely directly tested for. In this study we address the phenomenon of social facilitation, whereby the presence of a feeding conspecific is hypothesized to affect the motivation and behavior of the subject, elevating the likel…
Cebus apella Tolerate Intermittent Unreliability in Human Experimenters
Putting the Altruism Back into Altruism
Evolutionary theory postulates that altruistic behavior evolved for the return-benefits it bears the performer. For return-benefits to play a motivational role, however, they need to be experienced by the organism. Motivational analyses should restrict themselves, therefore, to the altruistic impulse and its knowable consequences. Empathy is an ideal candidate mechanism to underlie so-called directed altruism, i.e., altruism in response to anothe…
Partner effects on food consumption in brown capuchin monkeys
It has been claimed that capuchin monkeys ( Cebus apella ) show inequity aversion in relation to food rewards for a simple exchange task. However, other factors may affect the willingness of a monkey to consume foods of high or low value in the presence of a conspecific. In this study, pairs of monkeys were presented with unequally valued foods, but without any task‐performance: they simply received the food under four experimental conditions. By…
Affiliation promotes the transmission of a social custom
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 …
Coping with Acute Crowding by Cebus apella
Joint Ventures Require Joint Payoffs
Frans B. M. de Waal Joint Ventures Require Joint Payoffs: Fairness among Primates WALL STREET IS SOMETIMES COMPARED TO A DARWINIAN JUNGLE. Nice guys finish last, it is said, and only the strong survive. This is an adequate enough description, but not entirely true, neither for the stock market nor for life in the jungle. When Richard Grasso, head of the New York Stock Exchange, revealed a pay package for him self of close to $200 million, there w…
Responses to a simple barter task in chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes
Food sharing and reciprocal obligations among chimpanzees
Postconflict Behavior of Captive Brown Capuchins in the Presence and Absence of Attractive Food
A proximate perspective on reciprocal altruism
Behavioral laterality in captive bonobos (Pan paniscus)
Reconciliation in Captive Chimpanzees
The Chimpanzee's Sense of Social Regularity and Its Relation to the Human Sense of Justice
Cebus apella Tolerate Intermittent Unreliability in Human Experimenters
Integration of New Males into Four Social Groups of Tufted Capuchins (Cebus apella)
Fairness in Animals
Coping with Acute Crowding by Cebus apella
Joint Ventures Require Joint Payoffs
Frans B. M. de Waal Joint Ventures Require Joint Payoffs: Fairness among Primates WALL STREET IS SOMETIMES COMPARED TO A DARWINIAN JUNGLE. Nice guys finish last, it is said, and only the strong survive. This is an adequate enough description, but not entirely true, neither for the stock market nor for life in the jungle. When Richard Grasso, head of the New York Stock Exchange, revealed a pay package for him self of close to $200 million, there w…
An ethological analysis of types of agonistic interaction in a captive group of Java-monkeys (Macaca fascicularis)
Reconciliation and consolation among chimpanzees
Reconciliation and Redirected Affection in Rhesus Monkeys
The question whether rhesus monkeys reconcile was empirically translated as: Do they seek non-agonistic contact with former adversaries? The study concerned a captive group of forty-one monkeys, Macaca mulatta. Participants in 350 aggressive incidents were followed both immediately after the incident and during matched control periods. Comparison of the two sets of data showed that: - After the incident former opponents had an increased tendency …
The formal hierarchy of rhesus macaques
Teeth‐baring in a large captive rhesus monkey group ( Macaca mulatta ) was observed over a 30‐month period. Its directional consistency among adults was significantly higher than that of aggression. The unidirectionality was so extreme that the facial display must be seen as a formal status indicator; ie, a signal of which the direction is independent of short‐term contextual variation. As such, it seems adapted for communication about the state …
The Exportation of Biopolitics
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The Communicative Repertoire of Captive Bonobos (Pan Paniscus), Compared To That of Chimpanzees
Ten bonobos (Pan paniscus), housed in three separate subgroups at the San Diego Zoological Garden, were observed for 288 hours over a four-month period. The colony included one adult male, two adult females, two adolescent males, four juveniles, and one infant. Data on 5,135 sequences of social behavior were collected either as spoken accounts or as video recordings. In addition, high-quality sound recordings were obtained for spectrographic anal…
Peacemaking among Primates
Toward a comparative socioecology of the genus Macaca
Captive studies can make a unique contribution to primate socioecology by documenting species‐typical social dispositions under controlled conditions. Recent theories seek to connect the dominance relationships, group cohesiveness, and feeding ecology of primates. The present study explores the first two aspects by comparing the social organization of rhesus ( Macaca mulatta ) and stumptail monkeys ( M. arctoides ). Data were collected over a per…
Assignment methods for the analysis of network subgroup interactions
Food sharing and reciprocal obligations among chimpanzees
Do rhesus mothers suggest friends to their offspring?
The reconciliation behavior of golden monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellanae roxellanae) in small breeding groups
The Chimpanzee's Sense of Social Regularity and Its Relation to the Human Sense of Justice
Intentional deception in primates
Deception can be defined as the projection, to one's own advantage, of an inaccurate or false image of knowledge, intentions, or motivations. A great many scientists have reported the use of deception by nonhuman primates. Their accounts have been based on observations of primates in close contact with people, in captive groups, and in the wild. Qualitative descriptions are presented along with experimental evidence for the phenomenon. The accumu…
Preliminary data on voluntary food sharing in brown capuchin monkeys
Spontaneous interactions over fruits and vegetables were observed in a captive group of Cebus apella. The group lacked fully grown males; 3 adult females dominated the remaining 11 individuals, most of which were adolescents and late juveniles. Apart from expressions of interest and unsuccessful attempts to claim food, interactions over food included two types of interindividual food transfer: forced claims (i.e., involuntary transfers) and peace…
Coalitions and Alliances in Humans and Other Animals
1: F.B.M. de Waal & A.H. Harcourt: Coalitions and alliances: a history of ethological research. 2: B. Chapais: Role of alliances in social inheritance of rank among female primates. 3: S.B. Datta: Effects of availability of allies on female dominance structure. 4: C.L. Ehardt & I.S. Bernstein: Conflict intervention behaviour by adult male macaques. 5: C.J. Zabel, S.E. Glickman, L.G. Frank, K.B. Woodmansee, & G. Keppel: Coalition formation in a co…
The reproductive behavior of golden monkeys in captivity (Rhinopithecus roxellana roxellana)
Dominance style of Japanese macaques compared with rhesus and stumptail macaques
In the present study, we seek to relate dominance style with group cohesion in a captive group of Japanese macaques ( Macaca fuscata ). Social data were gathered on approach rate, result, and direction, aggression rate and intensity, grooming rate and direction, and conciliatory tendency. Data were collected using focal animal sampling and instantaneous scan sampling. Reconciliation data were collected using ad libitum observations of aggression …
Behavioral laterality in captive bonobos (Pan paniscus)
Good Natured
Influence of kinship and spatial density on reconciliation and grooming in rhesus monkeys
Some cercopithecine primates direct disproportionate amounts of grooming, huddling, and agonistic support toward maternal kin. Disproportionate amounts of aggression are also directed toward maternal kin, however, suggesting that mechanisms that restore relationships damaged by aggression, such as reconciliation, might be biased toward these preferred social partners. Studies investigating kinship effects and reconciliation are inconsistent, howe…
The Chimpanzee's service economy
Inhibition of social behavior in chimpanzees under high‐density conditions
Propagation of handclasp grooming among captive chimpanzees
A grooming posture previously reported for two wild chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes) communities developed spontaneously in a captive group of the same species. This offered a unique opportunity to follow the propagation of a new social custom. The posture consists of two partners grasping hands--either both right hands or both left hands--and raising the arms in an A-frame above their heads while mutually grooming with their free hands. The propagat…
Postconflict Behavior of Captive Brown Capuchins in the Presence and Absence of Attractive Food
Primate Behavior and Ecology (49 works) · Psychology (48 works) · Social Psychology (39 works) · Biology (36 works) · Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior (22 works) · Developmental psychology (20 works) · Animal Behavior and Reproduction (19 works) · Zoology (19 works) · Computer Science (17 works) · Aggression (16 works)