Let's live together
Friendliness has increased the lifespan of male chimpanzees
Ekaterina Rusakova, N+1
Friendly male chimpanzees live longer than their aggressive and sullen counterparts, according to eLife (Altschul et al., Personality links with lifespan in chimpanzees). For female chimpanzees, openness to new experiences is important, although to a lesser extent.
Like humans, other animals have individual character traits that correlate with life expectancy. Thus, the analysis showed that brave animals live less than their shy counterparts, but at the same time leave more offspring. Increased aggressiveness, less social activity and openness to new experiences are also associated with a shorter life expectancy.
When studying the character of people, psychologists often focus on the big five character traits, which include extroversion, benevolence or friendliness, conscientiousness or organization, neuroticism (emotional instability) and openness to experience. Scientists take these traits into account when assessing people's life expectancy. Studies have shown that more conscientious and benevolent extroverts have a longer life expectancy than neurotics. Studies of the life expectancy of other primates, depending on character traits, are conducted much less frequently. A small number of species participated in them, and life expectancy was estimated by a limited set of characteristics.
The authors of the new study, British, American and Japanese primatologists led by Drew Altschul from the University of Edinburgh studied 538 chimpanzees living in zoos and research centers in the UK, Australia, the Netherlands, Japan and the USA. The character of the monkeys was assessed by questionnaires filled out by specialists caring for the animals, and who worked with each chimpanzee from seven to 24 years old. The personality of the chimpanzee was assessed based on the big five character traits. Scientists also looked at the life expectancy of monkeys.
Based on the results of earlier studies, scientists have put forward several hypotheses. In particular, extroverts, friendlier and more organized individuals will live longer, and high-ranking males, on the contrary, will live less.
As a result, it turned out that the friendlier males lived longer than the rest of the individuals. But extroversion and organization did not affect the life expectancy of chimpanzees, in any case, the authors of the article did not find such dependencies. Also, scientists have not found a connection between the rank of a male and his life expectancy.
It turned out that the females, who were more willing to accept new experiences, also lived longer. But when the researchers adjusted for age, the addiction disappeared. Young chimpanzees were more willing to learn something new, and there was a clear association between less openness and age. As the scientists write, they could not decide whether the life expectancy of monkeys open to new experiences was really higher, or whether less openness was characteristic of older monkeys.
Earlier, primatologists found stable character traits in chimpanzees. They described the personality of more than a hundred wild individuals and compared them with the results of a single assessment of the personality traits of monkeys, which was conducted 45 years ago. A correlation was found between the research results, which, according to the authors, confirms the presence of stable personality traits in chimpanzees.
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