The chimpanzees «more idiots» – that is, the most stalkers, greedy and moody of the group— are the ones with the most ballots thrive in your community. A study on the personality of our ‘evolutionary cousins’ reveals that, paradoxically, animals with the most problematic character are the most successful. But why does nature reward this type of behavior? Shouldn’t animals that behave best in society prosper more? «We are facing an evolutionary puzzle«, Explain Joseph T. Feldblumresearcher at Duke University (United States) and one of the experts who has led this analysis.

The research, published this Monday in the scientific journal ‘PeerJ Life and Environment’, analyzes almost forty years of data Delaware 28 male chimpanzees of the Gombe National Park (Tanzania). Some of these animals began to be studied in the 1970s by the famous Jane Goodall who, already at that time, lost that Animals have very different personalities. There are, for example, quieter and more solitary chimpanzees that live without causing problems in the community. But there are also especially authoritarian chimpanzees that are dedicated to picking a fight between their similes. From here, the question is what type of personalities are the most successful in this type of company.

«It seems that intimidation has its advantages»

after analyze almost forty years of daily interactions of the Gombe chimpanzees, the experts found that the most confrontational animals were the most successful in reproduce and produce offspring. The most troublesome animals were also the ones that had risen higher on the social ladder. «Male chimpanzees whose personalities combine a high mastery scam little scrupulousness tends to have better results in life,» concludes the study. «It seems that bullying has its advantages,» add the researchers who have led this work.

personality traits

But why nature rewards the most conflicting behaviors? The experts explain that, until now, one of the most supported theories maintains that each personality trait helps to prosper at one point or another in life. Aggression, for example, seems to help the younger specimens to make a place for themselves in the group. But he already reached old age, when this ability loses its social sense, it seems that the most aggressive animals dilute this facet of his personality towards more affable traits. Something similar to what we can observe among humans.

Chimpanzees, like humans, have unique and distinctive personalities.

Related news

It is not the first time that science has immersed itself in the study of the personality of our evolutionary cousins. Especially since, due to our closeness in the tree of primate species, understand how the character of these apes works could you help us better understand why we are the way we are. A study published a few years ago in ‘Scientific Data’, in fact, establishes a certain parallelism between the personality traits observed in chimpanzees (both in the wild and in captivity) overlap with characteristics observed in our species.

According to various studies, in the same way that occurs among humans, chimpanzees have very distinctive individual personalities and, in addition, they also have social behaviors that change with age. On the one hand, as an analysis led by the University of Edinburgh points out, each of these animals has a unique combination of characteristics such as shyness or extroversion. On the other hand, as a study published in ‘Science’ shows, there are group behaviors such as, for example, the fact that older chimpanzees prefer to flee from conflicts and surround themselves only with their close circle of friends.