| Concept/Content |
social context to cooperative behavior / rooks (Corvis frugilegus) |
| Information caption |
Both chimps (primates) and rooks (birds) can recruit helpers to perform joint tasks. But their behaviors also differ, as do their social organizations. Rooks do not seek or achieve cooperation as frequently as chimps. Their social organization is also simpler. They form single mating pairs that tend to remain for life. Chimps, by contrast, shift mating partners and must also negotiate political allegiances in an unstable dominance hierarchy. The degree of cooperation in each case reflects the respective social demands. In addition, cooperation among individual pairs of rooks reflects their mutual tolerance in other social encounters. Overall, the cooperative behavior is closely linked to the social context (Seed et al 2008). |
| Inquiry caption |
[...continued]
Both chimps (primates) and rooks (birds) can recruit helpers to perform joint tasks. But their behaviors also differ, as do their social organizations. Rooks do not seek or achieve cooperation as frequently as chimps. Their social organization is also simpler. They form single mating pairs that tend to remain for life. Chimps, by contrast, shift mating partners and must also negotiate political allegiances in an unstable dominance hierarchy. In addition, cooperation among individual pairs of rooks reflects their mutual tolerance in other social encounters.
In humans, punishment occurs more readily in societies with stronger norms of cooperation (Heinrich et al 2006; Herrmann, Thoni and Gächter 2008).
Given all this information (about marmosets, chimps, rooks and humans), how would you characterize the respective roles of cognitive or social context in shaping moral behavior?
Target Concept: Variations in social and cognitive contexts shape helping and cooperative behavior. |
| Photographer |
L. Hlasek |
| Credit |
Photo by L. Hlasek. |
| SIZE in pixels [file size] |
301x291 |
|
