Teen chimpanzees, adolescent humans display similar risk-taking behaviour: Study

Human teens and chimpanzee teens show similar characteristics, except human teens can be more impulsive, according to a new study published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General by the American Psychological Association. The researchers played games with 40 chimpanzees raised in the wild while they were housed in a sanctuary in the Republic of Congo. These games evaluated the animals' propensity for impulsivity and risk-taking.

“Human adolescents are grappling with changing bodies and brains, and tend to be more impulsive, risk-seeking, and less able to regulate emotions than adults,” said lead study author Dr. Alexandra Rosati, associate professor of psychology and anthropology at the University of Michigan, via email to CNN. “Chimpanzees face many of the same kinds of challenges as humans as they grow up," she added.

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Adolescence in chimpanzees, according to the study, lasts for between eight to fifteen years out of a lifetime of fifty. Similar to human adolescents, they go through fast hormonal changes, form new social relationships, become more aggressive, and compete for social status.

Teenage chimpanzees are less often studied than newborns and adults, according to Dr. Aaron Sandel, an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Texas at Austin who spoke to CNN and isinvolved in the present study.

“For a while, there was a pretty big gap in the literature on (chimpanzee) adolescents,” Sandel said, noting that researchers often don’t focus on this period. Scientists may avoid studying teen chimps because their own human experiences with teenage years are complicated, he said.

Young chimpanzees were equally willing to wait for a bigger delayed reward as they were to take risks in their games, as per the study.

The study also pointed out that human teenagers are known to be more inclined to accept a smaller, more immediate reward.

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