A recent study published on February 3, 2025 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) highlighted an astonishing phenomenon highlighting the fact that bonobos would have the cognitive capacity of the “theory of the mind”.
Theory of mind, what are we talking about?
Being able to know what someone feels or what he needs according to what he does or says and act according to this information, is an almost essential capacity to integrate into the society of Today.
If we follow the definition which is given of this theory in “The theory of the Spirit: conceptual aspects, evaluation and effects of age”, it is a neuropsychological concept which is “The mental ability to infer mental states to oneself and to others and to understand them. […] The theory of the Spirit is referenced in literature under different meanings such as mentalization, reading of mental states, taking perspective, empathy or even social understanding. This ability allows us to predict, anticipate and interpret the behavior or action of our peers in a given situation.»
It is this theory of the mind that was observed in bonobos during an experience. Furthermore, our Simial cousins would even have noticed when humans were perfectly ignorant.
Bonobos know when you don't know
To reveal this discovery, researchers have therefore led an experience to demonstrate that bonobos are able to understand and act in the face of our ignorance. And what could be better than food to demonstrate it.
Thus, the experience took place as follows:
- Three cups were arranged on a table
- Under one of them, a treat was hidden there by a first human and this under the eyes of the monkey
- The second human, the one who was to discover the place where the treat was hidden to give it to the monkey, observed the scene behind a window
- When the treat was hidden, the human observer had to find food to give it to the bonobo
Until then everything is fine, and nothing has been demonstrated.
However, a variation in experience has been able to highlight the fact that bonobos may well know when we are ignorant. Indeed, a variation of the experience was to ensure that the observer, the one who was going to have to find food, does not see under which cup she was hidden.
It was then that the researchers noticed that the monkey, when he realized that humans did not know where the treat was and therefore that he could not have it, was put to point the finger at the cup under which it was hidden. In other words, he noticed that the observer had no idea where the food was and therefore helped it. In an interested manner surely. But anyway.
The limits of this study
Are our bonobos cousins even closer to us than we thought? On the one hand, it is true, the study has demonstrated it, they can show this mental capacity that is the theory of the mind.
However, there is a limit. And it is attached quite logically. The bonobos on which this experience was carried out are used to rubbing shoulders with human beings, so they were able to learn from their side.
In nature, there is no evidence that bonobos can use the theory of the mind. Firstly because they are not supposed to cross human beings daily. Second, the food they have available is not subtly hidden under a cup and does not work as a reward system.
Source : Ars Technica
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