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Updated: Aug 15, 2025
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Measuring the Subjective Value of Risky and Ambiguous Options using Experimental Economics and Functional MRI Methods
Published on: September 19, 2012
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Chimpanzee and Human Risk Preferences Show Key Similarities
Lou M Haux1, Jan M Engelmann2, Ruben C Arslan1
1Center for Adaptive Rationality, Max Planck Institute for Human Development.
Psychological Science
|January 3, 2023
Summary
Chimpanzee risk-taking behavior mirrors human patterns, showing consistent preferences, aversion to ambiguity, and sex-based differences. These findings suggest core risk preference dimensions evolved before human culture.
Area of Science:
- Evolutionary Psychology
- Primatology
- Behavioral Economics
Background:
- Risk preference is crucial for human decisions in health, wealth, and well-being.
- Life-history theory suggests fitness expectations influence risk-taking, but evolutionary roots are unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the evolutionary origins of human risk-taking behavior.
- To examine risk preferences in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) using a multimethod approach.
Main Methods:
- Combined observer ratings with behavioral choice experiments in 86 chimpanzees (ages 2-40).
- Assessed traitlike consistency, ambiguity aversion, sex differences, and age-related patterns in risk-taking.
Main Results:
- Chimpanzee risk preferences showed structural similarities to humans.
- Risk preference was a consistent trait, with males being more risk-prone than females.
- Risk appetite followed an inverted-U-shaped curve with age, peaking in young adulthood.
Conclusions:
- Key dimensions of risk preference may have evolved independently of human cultural influences.
- Chimpanzee behavior provides insights into the deep evolutionary roots of risk-taking.
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