And in a related story.....to my previous post about how unsocial and therefore unnatural American culture is....
Scientists recently compared how little kids, chimps, and capuchin monkeys share knowledge to complete a task. All the primates were given puzzle boxes and the subjects were rewarded (fruit for the nonhuman primates, stickers of the human ones) as they worked though the various levels of the puzzles.
The preschool children shared knowledge, urge each other on, and even passed along their prized stickers to others.
The chimps and capuchins, on the other hand, kept their puzzles to themselves. No teaching, no sharing, and when the fruit was handed out, they stole from each other.
In others words, the big difference between humans and other primates is that human are socially cooperative stars.
Keep in mind that both chimps and capuchins are highly social animals, as most primates are, but human sociality seems to be incredibly active and engaging. We don't just hang out together or forage together, we are constantly in each others' faces, and we like it that way.
Humans also have language, which surely gives us the possibility of deeper layers of interpersonal communication and connection. In fact, language may have evolved for this very reason, to make us hyper-social.
And that's why being a solitary American is such an odd way to be, because being alone is simply not in our nature.
Scientists recently compared how little kids, chimps, and capuchin monkeys share knowledge to complete a task. All the primates were given puzzle boxes and the subjects were rewarded (fruit for the nonhuman primates, stickers of the human ones) as they worked though the various levels of the puzzles.
The preschool children shared knowledge, urge each other on, and even passed along their prized stickers to others.
The chimps and capuchins, on the other hand, kept their puzzles to themselves. No teaching, no sharing, and when the fruit was handed out, they stole from each other.
In others words, the big difference between humans and other primates is that human are socially cooperative stars.
Keep in mind that both chimps and capuchins are highly social animals, as most primates are, but human sociality seems to be incredibly active and engaging. We don't just hang out together or forage together, we are constantly in each others' faces, and we like it that way.
Humans also have language, which surely gives us the possibility of deeper layers of interpersonal communication and connection. In fact, language may have evolved for this very reason, to make us hyper-social.
And that's why being a solitary American is such an odd way to be, because being alone is simply not in our nature.
