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. 2013 May 1;6(3):e23819.
doi: 10.4161/cib.23819.

How fairly do chimpanzees play the ultimatum game?

Darby Proctor  1 , Sarah F Brosnan, Frans B M de Waal
Affiliations

How fairly do chimpanzees play the ultimatum game?

Darby Proctor et al. Commun Integr Biol. .

Abstract

Humans can behave fairly, but can other species? Recently we tested chimpanzees on a classic human test for fairness, the Ultimatum Game, and found that they behaved similarly to humans. In humans, Ultimatum Game behavior is cited as evidence for a human sense of fairness. By that same logic, we concluded that chimpanzees behaved fairly in our recent study. However, we make a distinction between behavior and motivation. Both humans and chimpanzees behaved fairly, but determining why they did so is more challenging.

Keywords: behavioral economics; chimpanzee; fairness; primate; ultimatum game.

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