title: Personality in Bonobos.
abstract: To better understand human and chimpanzee personality evolution, we obtained trait ratings of personality for 154 captive bonobos (~80% of the U.S. and European population). We found factors that we labeled Assertiveness, Conscientiousness, Openness, Agreeableness, Attentiveness, and Extraversion. The interrater reliabilities and test-retest reliabilities for these factors were comparable to those found in humans and other species. Using orthogonal targeted Procrustes rotations, we compared the bonobo dimensions with those of three samples of captive chimpanzees. Overall congruence coefficients indicated a fair degree of similarity; at the factor level, there was good evidence for Assertiveness, Conscientiousness, Openness, and Agreeableness in the chimpanzee samples; evidence for Attentiveness and Extraversion was poor. These findings suggest that, as expected given their close phylogenetic relationship, bonobo personality structure resembles chimpanzee personality structure in some respects. However, divergent evolution, perhaps as a result of socioecological differences between bonobos and chimpanzees, also appears to have shaped personality structure in these species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, The University of Edinburgh Scottish Primate Research Group alex.weiss@ed.ac.uk nicky.staes@kmda.org.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.affiliation: Ethology Research Group, Department of Biology, The University of Antwerp Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp.
authors.forename: Nicky
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Staes
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp.
authors.forename: Jeffrey J M
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Pereboom
authors.affiliation: Wildlife Research Center of Kyoto University.
authors.forename: Miho
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Inoue-Murayama
authors.affiliation: Ethology Research Group, Department of Biology, The University of Antwerp Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp.
authors.forename: Jeroen M G
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.affiliation: Centre for Research and Conservation, Royal Zoological Society of Antwerp.
authors.forename: Marcel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eens
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005260:Female; D008297:Male; D019974:Pan paniscus / Q000523:psychology*; D002679:Pan troglodytes / Q000523:psychology*; D010551:Personality; D010802:Phylogeny
keywords: Pan paniscus; Pan troglodytes; behavior; chimpanzee; evolution; primate