New psychology study suggests chimpanzees might be rational thinkers

(Press-News.org) Chimpanzees may have more in common with human thinkers than previously thought. A new study published in Science by researchers provides evidence that chimpanzees can rationally revise their beliefs when presented with new information.

The study, titled “Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs,” was conducted by a large research team that included UC Berkeley Psychology Postdoctoral Researcher Emily Sanford, UC Berkeley Psychology Professor Jan Engelmann and Utrecht University Psychology Professor Hanna Schleihauf. Their findings showed that chimpanzees — like humans — can change their minds based on the strength of available evidence, a key feature of rational thought.

Working at the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary in Uganda, the researchers presented chimps with two boxes, one containing food. Initially, the animals received a clue suggesting which box held the reward. Later, they were given stronger evidence pointing to the other box. The chimps frequently switched their choices in response to the new clues.

“Chimpanzees were able to revise their beliefs when better evidence became available,” said Sanford, who is a researcher in the UC Berkeley Social Origins Lab. “This kind of flexible reasoning is something we often associate with 4-year-old children. It was exciting to show that chimps can do this too.”

To ensure the findings reflected genuine reasoning rather than instinct, the team incorporated tightly controlled experiments and computational modeling. These analyses ruled out simpler explanations, such as the chimps favoring the latest signal (recency bias) or reacting to the most obvious cue. The models confirmed that the chimps’ decision-making aligned with rational strategies of belief revision.

“We recorded their first choice, then their second, and compared whether they revised their beliefs,” Sanford said. “We also used computational models to test how their choices matched up with various reasoning strategies.” 

The study challenges the traditional view that rationality — the ability to form and revise beliefs based on evidence — is exclusive to humans.

“The difference between humans and chimpanzees isn’t a categorical leap. It’s more like a continuum,” Sanford said. 

Sanford also sees broader applications for this research. Understanding how primates revise beliefs could reshape how scientists think about learning, child development and even artificial intelligence.

“This research can help us think differently about how we approach early education or how we model reasoning in AI systems,” she said. “We shouldn’t assume children are blank slates when they walk into a classroom.”

The next phase of her study brings the same tasks to children. Sanford’s team is currently collecting data from two- to four-year-olds to compare how toddlers and chimps revise beliefs. 

“It’s fascinating to design a task for chimps, and then try to adapt it for a toddler,” she said.

Eventually, she hopes to extend the study to other primate species as well, building a comparative map of reasoning abilities across evolutionary branches. While Sanford has worked on everything from dog empathy to numerical cognition in children, one lesson remains constant: animals are capable of much more than we assume.

“They may not know what science is, but they’re navigating complex environments with intelligent and adaptive strategies,” she said. “And that’s something worth paying attention to.”

Other members of the research team include: Bill Thompson (UC Berkeley Psychology);  Snow Zhang (UC Berkeley Philosophy); Joshua Rukundo (Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary/Chimpanzee Trust, Uganda); Josep Call (School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews); and Esther Herrmann (School of Psychology, University of Portsmouth).

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