title: Chimpanzee choice rates in competitive games match equilibrium game theory predictions.
abstract: The capacity for strategic thinking about the payoff-relevant actions of conspecifics is not well understood across species. We use game theory to make predictions about choices and temporal dynamics in three abstract competitive situations with chimpanzee participants. Frequencies of chimpanzee choices are extremely close to equilibrium (accurate-guessing) predictions, and shift as payoffs change, just as equilibrium theory predicts. The chimpanzee choices are also closer to the equilibrium prediction, and more responsive to past history and payoff changes, than two samples of human choices from experiments in which humans were also initially uninformed about opponent payoffs and could not communicate verbally. The results are consistent with a tentative interpretation of game theory as explaining evolved behavior, with the additional hypothesis that chimpanzees may retain or practice a specialized capacity to adjust strategy choice during competition to perform at least as well as, or better than, humans have.
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Kyoto University Primate Research Institute, Inuyama, Aichi 484-8506, Japan.
authors.forename: Christopher Flynn
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Martin
authors.affiliation: Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Caltech, Pasadena CA 91125, USA.
authors.forename: Rahul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bhui
authors.affiliation: 1] Department of Finance, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 USA [2] Computation & Neural Systems, Caltech.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bossaerts
authors.affiliation: Department of Brain and Behavioral Sciences, Kyoto University Primate Research Institute, Inuyama, Aichi 484-8506, Japan.
authors.forename: Tetsuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsuzawa
authors.affiliation: 1] Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Caltech, Pasadena CA 91125, USA [2] Computation & Neural Systems, Caltech.
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Camerer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002755:Choice Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003163:Competitive Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D003657:Decision Making; D005260:Female; D005716:Game Theory; D006801:Humans; D008960:Models, Psychological; D002679:Pan troglodytes; D012919:Social Behavior