SOCIAL REFERENCING BY YOUNG CHIMPANZEES (PAN-TROGLODYTES)

Social referencing is the seeking of information from another individu al and the use of that information to evaluate a situation. It is a we ll-documented ability in human infants but has not been studied experi mentally in nonhuman primates. Seventeen young nursery-reared chimpanz ees (14 to 41 months old) were observed in a standard social referenci ng paradigm in which they received happy and fear messages concerning novel objects from a familiar human caregiver. Each chimpanzee looked referentially at their caregiver, and the emotional messages that they received differentially influenced their gaze behavior and avoidance of the novel objects. It is concluded that chimpanzees can acquire inf ormation about their complex social and physical environments through social referencing and can use emotional information to alter their ow n behavior.