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Updated: Jul 25, 2026
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Dissecting the Non-human Primate Brain in Stereotaxic Space
Published on: July 16, 2009
Social referencing by young chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes)
C L Russell1, K A Bard, L B Adamson
1Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta 30303, USA. russell@gsu.edu
Summary
Chimpanzees demonstrate social referencing, using human caregiver cues to assess novel objects. This study shows primates can interpret emotional signals to guide their behavior.
Area of Science:
- Primate behavior
- Cognitive ethology
- Social cognition
Background:
- Social referencing, seeking information from others to evaluate situations, is known in human infants.
- Experimental studies on social referencing in nonhuman primates are lacking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate social referencing abilities in young chimpanzees.
- To determine if chimpanzees use emotional cues from a familiar caregiver to guide their responses to novel stimuli.
Main Methods:
- Seventeen nursery-reared chimpanzees (14-41 months) were observed in a social referencing paradigm.
- Chimpanzees received "happy" and "fear" emotional messages from a human caregiver regarding novel objects.
- Gaze behavior and object avoidance were recorded.
Main Results:
- Chimpanzees looked referentially at the caregiver.
- Emotional messages from the caregiver significantly influenced chimpanzees' gaze duration and object avoidance.
- Fear messages led to increased avoidance, while happy messages led to decreased avoidance.
Conclusions:
- Chimpanzees exhibit social referencing, acquiring information about their environment through social cues.
- Chimpanzees utilize emotional information from conspecifics or familiar individuals to modulate their behavior.
- This finding extends the understanding of social referencing beyond human infants to nonhuman primates.
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