HUMANS are curious creatures, but do other great apes share this innate curiosity?
US researchers in a series of mind experiments with adult chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, and orangutans, got the animals to choose between two up-turned plastic cups covering some grapes.
One cup was transparent and contained a small reward, while the other was opaque, hiding a larger reward.
Human children aged three to five years old were also given a similar task, with their reward being stickers.
On average, children were more likely to forego the certain reward in favour of the mysterious one - 85% and 77% of children chose the opaque cup at least once during the fourth and fifth studies respectively, compared to 24% of apes in the third study.
When the hidden reward was revealed and participants were allowed to change their choice, over 88% of apes and children chose the opaque cup with the larger reward at least once.
The study is the first to compare curiosity in human children and great apes using the same experimental setup.
The researchers said the results suggest that children may be more motivated to explore the unknown, or less risk-averse than great apes.
However, after learning about the rewards of exploring uncertainty, apes were quick to apply this new knowledge to future scenarios.
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