Do Chimps Barter?

Do Chimps Barter?

Do you remember making important bartering transactions in the school cafeteria, maybe a chocolate pudding for a fruit roll-up? We barter everyday whether we realize it or not, and it is part of every culture around the world to some degree. While we know that humans barter, we may not think about whether animals do.

Researchers have studied bartering in chimpanzees. They gave one chimpanzee an apple slice and one a grape. Chimpanzees prefer grapes to apple slices. After studying the chimps’ interactions, the researchers noted that chimps did not barter unless they were taught to barter. Soon, they found that the chimps would barter only with humans, and only if they were able to receive a more prized item, such as grapes. If the other item was not desired, the chimps had no interest in bartering.

Researchers have come up with several reasons for this lack of interest in bartering in chimpanzees. One hypothesis is that chimps do not have a social system which enforces “good” bartering behavior. Good bartering behavior would not include taking both bartering items. A developed social system would not only discourage chimps from hoarding all the good stuff, but would also encourage trading.

While chimps do not barter goods, they do, however, maintain a very active service economy, making them more inclined to trade services. Another difference between human and chimpanzee social systems is that chimps do not collect possessions like we do and don’t really own anything, such as land. This lack of possessions makes bartering nonsensical.

Sarah Brosnan was one of the lead authors of this study of chimps’ trading behavior. She is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Georgia State University. She says, “This reluctance to trade appears to be deeply ingrained in the chimpanzee psyche…They’re perfectly capable of barter, but they don’t do so in a way which will maximize their outcomes.” Brosnan hopes that these conclusions will help us to understand situations where humans do the same.