Extending and refining the fearful ape hypothesis.

Area of Science:

• Evolutionary psychology
• Developmental science
• Anthropology

Background:

• The fearful ape hypothesis (FAH) proposes that increased fearfulness was adaptive in early human evolution.
• This adaptation is linked to the unique cooperative caregiving present in human great ape social structures.
• Fear expression and perception in early development may have enhanced care-based responses.

Purpose of the Study:

• To extend and refine the fearful ape hypothesis (FAH).
• To incorporate suggestions from commentaries and empirical evidence for a more nuanced framework.
• To encourage cross-species and cross-cultural longitudinal research on fear's evolutionary and developmental roles.

Main Methods:

• Theoretical extension of the fearful ape hypothesis (FAH).
• Integration of existing empirical work and commentaries.
• Conceptual framework development for affective science.

Main Results:

• A more comprehensive and nuanced version of the FAH is presented.
• The framework highlights the adaptive role of fear in early human ontogeny within cooperative caregiving contexts.
• Fear expression and perception are identified as key mechanisms enhancing social bonding and cooperation.

Conclusions:

• The refined FAH provides a robust evolutionary-developmental perspective on fear.
• Fear plays a crucial role in the development of sociality and cooperation in human evolution.
• This work advocates for an evolutionary-developmental approach to the broader field of affective science.