The cell phone incident

Several researchers described an event that occurred a few weeks ago in the large chimp group (Group A). One of the researchers accidentally dropped a cell phone into the outdoor arena. The phone immediately became an object of interest being monopolized by one animal and then taken away by a more dominant chimp. Eventually, the phone ended up in the possession of the alpha male, Robert. As Daniel Haun (a post doc) noted, this was not a coincidence. Unfortunately the episode was not captured on video.

For me, this incident raises questions about the origin of value - how does a non-food object become valued in a community? I think this is the central question in the origin of property. Attachments like Alex's security blanket are ends in themselves; it gives him comfort and arguably can be viewed as an extension of self (or so Lita Furby, 1980 postulates). Burlap sacks are also available to all the chimps and so probably nothing special. The cell phone on the other hand was truly novel, a rare find - so interesting that chimps fought over it and eventually destroyed it. But why would it be valuable? In a zoo setting, the simplest explanation is that it can be exchanged for food. According to the researchers here, apes in zoos quickly figure out that if they get a hold of a zoo keeper's pen or walkie-talkie, they can demand food for its return.

Anything related to food is learned quickly and the exchange idea has cool implications for research. One student here, Katrin, used an exchange task as part of her experimental design (investigating gratitude and guilt). She told me that the exchange part required almost no training - all of the animals (orangs) figured out how to trade sticks for food quickly. Contrast this with the capuchins at Yale who took a while to learn trading - apparently they were introduced to the process as infants. There could be some very interesting comparative work here using some fungible currency.

There is a temptation to compare the cell phone incident to the conch in the Lord of the Flies. I resist this because the dominance hierarchy for chimps is very strict and based on both physical strength and alliances. Thus the alpha male will always get the conch, but possession of the conch cannot establish status.

The general interest in the cell phone, however, warrants some exploration. Perhaps, some objects are simply interesting by virtue of their novelty. If this is the case, the possessor would not be quite so willing to relinquish the object even for food. Or some objects would command a premium.