For a long time now, researchers have believed that humans were alone in terms of the ability to be involved in a sociological notion called joint commitment.
Inverse defines joint commitment as an understanding that "by working together as a collective, we can accomplish more than we could as individuals," acting independently.
Essentially, the website said, joint commitment is considered as the glue that holds "human civilization together." However, a new study which Science Advances recently published shows, humans are not alone in their instinct for cooperation.
Joint commitment is just one characteristic of "shared intentionality" among humans, which importantly means common behaviors in activities that include cooperative communication, understanding the perspective of another, understanding functions in social interactions, and offering shared aid.
Assumption Based on Past Examinations on Primates
Scientists previously presumed such higher-level cognitive skills were the humans' preserve. They based such an assumption on the past examinations on great apes, chimpanzees, and bonobos, which comprised artificial games to evaluate their level of joint commitment.
Consequently, the tests detected inconsistent results. The researchers said it is possible that the said experiments' artificial nature impacted the outcome.
According to the study's lead author and a Durham University post-doctoral research associate, Raphaela Heesen, some experiments indeed presented that joint commitment investigations in bonobos are more successful compared to that with chimpanzees. However, these experiments always involved human testers who had interaction with subjects.
This time, the scientists opted to disrupt pairs of bonobos while they were involved in grooming, a more natural social activity.
Bonobos, Human-Like Apes
Bonobos are found to be special among non-human primates. Previous studies propose these apes are developing human-like social interactions, not to mention deep bonds.
Heesen explained, Bonobos are known to be more socially accepting and unrestricted compared to chimpanzees and other great apes.
This is the reason, she explained, they would be the most ideal candidate species to examine joint commitment among non-humans.
If joint commitment exists among bonobos, then these primates may understand there is an indirect social contract when engaging in joint activities with another bonobo.
In addition, they may understand too that there are consequences for this commitment to be broken, and thus, they would need to communicate accordingly to alleviate probable disputes.
In their study, the researchers then theorized that like humans, bonobos understand the notion of "face threats," an idea similar to the need to save face, which involves the risk partners that feel disrespected if they are kept waiting for a long time, or otherwise mistreated.
The 'Politeness Theory'
Heesen explained how bonobos should abide by "politeness theory," which is very common among humans. This particular theory in humans, she said, explains that their actions "will be calibrated to the social relationship's key dimensions via an act of politeness."
Such acts tend to occur when there is a difference in social ranking between two partners that interact or if the partners are not familiar with each other.
For instance, the expert explained, an individual is more polite to his boss than his siblings. Therefore, the two dimensions increasing politeness acts in humans include "social distance and power difference."
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