Social Conventions in Baboons Naturally Emerge Like in Humans, Study Shows

Social conventions, such as shaking hands and saying hello or goodbye, are commonly observed in humans. It forms an essential part of human social and cultural behavior. Now, scientists are studying the development of social conventions in Guinea baboons to see how important it is in non-human primate societies.

Phys.org reported that French scientists from CNRS studied 20 baboons raised at a primatology center and gave them tasks in pairs that will require them to work together to obtain a reward. They found that positive reinforcement is enough to trigger the emergence of social convention among non-human primates.

(Photo: Pixabay/herbert2512)
Social Conventions in Baboons Naturally Emerge Like in Humans, Study Shows

Social Conventions are Not Unique to Humans

Gestures, such as kissing, bowing, and shaking hands, are three ways to say hello or goodbye and are actions known as social conventions that apply to every member of a group. They help solve coordination problems encountered within a group by providing efficient, stable, and arbitrary solutions.

But these actions are not exclusive to humans as what is shown in the study, titled "The Experimental Emergence of Convention in a Non-human Primate," published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, by researchers from CNRS primatology center from the Cognitive Psychology Laboratory (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université).

According to the institute's news release, baboons in the experiment were shown a device requiring two individuals' coordination. This included a task in which two baboons are presented with two random photos to select the same picture to get a reward. This will require the baboons to decide one solution to the problem and agree on that decision.

Researchers observed that the baboons quickly developed a hierarchy between images, wherein they would agree on the choice of the pink square when it was shown to them with a light blue square, and choose the yellow square next to the pink or light blue square.

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Social Conventions in Baboons are Similar to Human Social Conventions

In part two of the experiment, when the two baboons can no longer see each other, researchers said their overall performance was not very much affected. This could mean that the two animals were coordinated on their choices and not simply using imitation as a strategy to solve the problem.

Cognitive psychology researcher Anthony Formaux, the study's lead author, said that the group's performance did not budge, which surprised the researchers when the baboons continued to choose the same image even without seeing each other.

They said it could not be a shared affinity for certain colors after repeating the experiment using only black and white designs, France24 reported. They noted that for a behavior to be considered a social convention, its benefit must also apply to the whole group, consistently work, and be one of the several solutions.

The social conventions they formed were deemed stable, efficient, and arbitrary because the images they selected were not dictated, presenting similar characteristics of human social conventions. They propose that the next researchers observe how non-human primates in the wild also form social conventions.

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