Dec 24 2009
Quick Hit: Interesting Chimpanzee Behavior Overblown
While I am a huge fan of the anthropology and primatology fields, and I have no qualms with tentative parallels drawn between other species’ behavior and our own (evolutionary psychology), I am first and foremost a skeptic. And so the news of some recent chimpanzee research first piqued my interest, then got me grunting in disapproval.
The title: Wild Chimps Have Near Human Understanding of Fire
You may wonder how it was determined that wild chimpanzees have near human understanding of fire. Were the chimps given #2 pencils and a fire fighter proficiency test? Joking aside, here is how chimpanzee understanding was gauged:
Data on the chimps’ behavior with seasonal fires was collected by Pruetz during two specific encounters in March and April 2006.
Field observations on two occasions? Poor quality and quantity of data, I’m afraid. From that information we get the claim, as a subtitle reiterates it –
Chimps have calm understanding of wildfires
A report of the events includes this:
The researchers interpret the chimpanzees’ behavior to the wildfires as being predictive, rather than responsive, in that they showed no signals of stress or fear — other than avoiding the fire as it approached them.[bold added]
That one bold word says a lot. It also highlights why a finding/claim such as above should be met with a healthy dose of skepticism.
While the interpretation of field observations reported in this piece might be spot-on, it might also be significantly off-the-mark. For the interpretation of observed behavior can be something like the interpretation of inkblots and other fully or relatively vague stimuli/events.
