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What is Behavior?

What is Behavior?

Behaviors are actions that an organism engages in—they can be related to finding food, reproducing, defending against threats, and many other possible actions. Behaviors include activities related to the environment around the animal—such as migration—as well as social interactions within a species or population. Many behaviors involve motor output—that is, muscle movements—while others involve less visible actions, such as learning.

Altruism

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Altruistic behaviors are “unselfish” behaviors—those that help another individual at the expense of the individual carrying out the behavior. Despite the negative consequences for the altruistic animal, these behaviors are thought to have evolved for several reasons.

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Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary psychology explores the origins of human behavior and mental processes by framing them within the context of natural selection, a theory famously propounded by Charles Darwin. This field asserts that many behaviors common across human societies — ranging from instinctive fear reactions to complex social interactions — arose as evolutionary adaptations. These adaptations enhanced the survival and reproductive success of our ancestors, thereby becoming embedded in the human psyche...

Instinctive Drift

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Instinctive drift refers to the tendency of animals to revert to their innate behaviors despite repeated reinforcement. Breland and Breland demonstrated this concept in an experiment with a raccoon. The raccoon was trained to pick up two coins and place them in a container in exchange for food. Initially, the raccoon learned to associate the coins with food, making them a conditioned stimulus or a substitute for food. However, over time, the raccoon became less willing to put the coins into the...

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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 11, 2026

Peering into the Dynamics of Social Interactions: Measuring Play Fighting in Rats

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Animal behaviour: inequity aversion in capuchins?

Joseph Henrich¹

¹Department of Anthropology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia 30322, USA. jhenric@emory.edu

|March 12, 2004

Summary

Capuchin monkeys may reject unequal rewards not due to inequity aversion, but other factors. This challenges the idea that this behavior in primates is directly comparable to human responses to unfairness.

Area of Science:

Comparative psychology
Primate behavior
Behavioral economics

Background:

Studies suggest capuchin monkeys reject unequal food rewards, interpreted as inequity aversion.
This behavior has been linked to similar responses observed in humans.

Discussion:

The interpretation of capuchin monkeys' rejection of unequal rewards as inequity aversion is questioned.
Contradictions exist between the cited inequity aversion model and observed capuchin behavior.
Human experimental results in similar scenarios differ from capuchin responses, suggesting distinct underlying mechanisms.

Key Insights:

Capuchin monkeys' food rejection may not stem from a dislike of unequal payoffs.
Human and capuchin responses to inequity appear to be context-dependent and not universally analogous.

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The cross-cultural universality of inequity aversion as a driving force is not supported by current evidence.

Outlook:

Further research is needed to explore alternative explanations for primate reward rejection.
Investigating the cognitive and ecological factors influencing fairness-related behaviors in non-human primates is crucial.
Comparative studies should focus on nuanced differences rather than assuming universal behavioral drivers across species.