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Reduced risk-seeking in chimpanzees in a zero-outcome game

A key component of economic decisions is the integration of information about reward outcomes and probabilities in selecting between competing options. In many species, risky choice is influenced by the magnitude of available outcomes, probability of success and the possibility of extreme outcomes....

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Autores principales: Keupp, Stefanie, Grueneisen, Sebastian, Ludvig, Elliot A., Warneken, Felix, Melis, Alicia P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7815432/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33423631
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0673
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author Keupp, Stefanie
Grueneisen, Sebastian
Ludvig, Elliot A.
Warneken, Felix
Melis, Alicia P.
author_facet Keupp, Stefanie
Grueneisen, Sebastian
Ludvig, Elliot A.
Warneken, Felix
Melis, Alicia P.
author_sort Keupp, Stefanie
collection PubMed
description A key component of economic decisions is the integration of information about reward outcomes and probabilities in selecting between competing options. In many species, risky choice is influenced by the magnitude of available outcomes, probability of success and the possibility of extreme outcomes. Chimpanzees are generally regarded to be risk-seeking. In this study, we examined two aspects of chimpanzees' risk preferences: first, whether setting the value of the non-preferred outcome of a risky option to zero changes chimpanzees’ risk preferences, and second, whether individual risk preferences are stable across two different measures. Across two experiments, we found chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes, n = 23) as a group to be risk-neutral to risk-avoidant with highly stable individual risk preferences. We discuss how the possibility of going empty-handed might reduce chimpanzees' risk-seeking relative to previous studies. This malleability in risk preferences as a function of experimental parameters and individual differences raises interesting questions about whether it is appropriate or helpful to categorize a species as a whole as risk-seeking or risk-avoidant. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Existence and prevalence of economic behaviours among non-human primates’.
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spelling pubmed-78154322021-01-22 Reduced risk-seeking in chimpanzees in a zero-outcome game Keupp, Stefanie Grueneisen, Sebastian Ludvig, Elliot A. Warneken, Felix Melis, Alicia P. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci Articles A key component of economic decisions is the integration of information about reward outcomes and probabilities in selecting between competing options. In many species, risky choice is influenced by the magnitude of available outcomes, probability of success and the possibility of extreme outcomes. Chimpanzees are generally regarded to be risk-seeking. In this study, we examined two aspects of chimpanzees' risk preferences: first, whether setting the value of the non-preferred outcome of a risky option to zero changes chimpanzees’ risk preferences, and second, whether individual risk preferences are stable across two different measures. Across two experiments, we found chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes, n = 23) as a group to be risk-neutral to risk-avoidant with highly stable individual risk preferences. We discuss how the possibility of going empty-handed might reduce chimpanzees' risk-seeking relative to previous studies. This malleability in risk preferences as a function of experimental parameters and individual differences raises interesting questions about whether it is appropriate or helpful to categorize a species as a whole as risk-seeking or risk-avoidant. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Existence and prevalence of economic behaviours among non-human primates’. The Royal Society 2021-03-01 2021-01-11 /pmc/articles/PMC7815432/ /pubmed/33423631 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0673 Text en © 2021 The Authors. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Articles
Keupp, Stefanie
Grueneisen, Sebastian
Ludvig, Elliot A.
Warneken, Felix
Melis, Alicia P.
Reduced risk-seeking in chimpanzees in a zero-outcome game
title Reduced risk-seeking in chimpanzees in a zero-outcome game
title_full Reduced risk-seeking in chimpanzees in a zero-outcome game
title_fullStr Reduced risk-seeking in chimpanzees in a zero-outcome game
title_full_unstemmed Reduced risk-seeking in chimpanzees in a zero-outcome game
title_short Reduced risk-seeking in chimpanzees in a zero-outcome game
title_sort reduced risk-seeking in chimpanzees in a zero-outcome game
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7815432/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33423631
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0673
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