Variation in primate decision-making under uncertainty and the roots of human economic behaviour

Abstract

Uncertainty is a ubiquitous component of human economic behaviour, yet people can vary in their preferences for risk across populations, individuals and different points in time. As uncertainty also characterizes many aspects of animal decision-making, comparative research can help evaluate different potential mechanisms that generate this variation, including the role of biological differences or maturational change versus cultural learning, as well as identify human-unique components of economic decision-making. Here, we examine decision-making under risk across non-human primates, our closest relatives. We first review theoretical approaches and current methods for understanding decision-making in animals. We then assess the current evidence for variation in animal preferences between species and populations, between individuals based on personality, sex and age, and finally, between different contexts and individual states. We then use these primate data to evaluate the processes that can shape human decision-making strategies and identify the primate foundations of human economic behaviour. This article is part of the theme issue 'Existence and prevalence of economic behaviours among non-human primates'.

Keywords: cooperation; economic behaviour; individual variation; non-human primates; risk.

Figure 1.

Empirical data on primate decision-making under risk. Phylogenetic distribution of current primate data across species indicating types of tasks, comparisons across species and individual variation between sexes and by age; and finally state and context manipulations; note that there is a lack of comparisons across populations or by personality traits in studies of primate risk preferences. We report the references for studies in each category (see electronic supplementary material, table S1 for full breakdown of results by study).

Figure 2.

The origins of human variation in human economic behaviour. Comparative studies of other primates can help disentangle the relative role of shared biological processes versus human-unique cultural influences in risk preferences. Current evidence for variation across populations, individuals and contexts in primates suggests some processes are shared with humans whereas others are human-unique. (Online version in colour.)