Comparative curiosity: How do great apes and children deal with uncertainty?

Humans are perhaps the most curious animals on earth, but to what extent our innate motivations for discovering new information are shared with our closest relatives remain poorly understood. To shed light on this question, we presented great apes with two experimental paradigms in which they had to initially choose between an empty opaque cup and a baited opaque cup with rewards invisible to the ape in study 1, or to choose between a transparent cup with rewards or a baited opaque cup with rewards invisible to the ape in studies 2 and 3. We also presented young children with scenarios comparable to the second paradigm (studies 4 and 5). Notably, after the initial choice phase, we presented participants with potential alternatives providing better rewards than the previously secured options. Importantly, those alternatives shared some features with the uncertain options, giving subjects the possibility to relate both options through analogical reasoning. We found that most great apes were not curious about the uncertain options. They only explored those options after they were presented with the alternatives. Children, instead, explored the uncertain options before the alternatives were presented, showing a higher degree of curiosity than the great apes. We argue that differences between children and apes mostly lay in motivational dispositions to explore the unknown.

Automated summary

Humans are curious creatures, but it is unclear to what extent our innate curiosity is shared with our closest relatives. In order to investigate this question, researchers conducted experiments with great apes and young children, presenting them with choices between different cups containing visible or invisible rewards. The results showed that while great apes only became curious about uncertain options after being presented with better alternatives, children showed a higher degree of curiosity and explored the uncertain options before the alternatives were presented. The differences between children and apes are believed to lie in their motivational dispositions to explore the unknown.