Apes can guess what others are thinking - just like humans, study finds

Research indicates apes are able to predict one another’s beliefs and suggests that other primates have complex inner lives

Hannah Devlin
@hannahdev
Thursday 6 October 2016 14.00 EDT

Apes have a human-like ability to guess what others are thinking, even in cases when someone holds a mistaken belief, according to research that supports the view that other primates can empathise and have complex inner lives.

The findings, in chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans, are the first to clearly demonstrate that apes can predict another’s beliefs – even when they know that presumption is false.

“This cognitive ability is at the heart of so many human social skills,” said Christopher Krupenye of Duke University. “I think our findings start to suggest that maybe apes have a deeper understanding of each other than we previously thought.”

In a fresh take on a classic psychology experiment, the apes were able to correctly anticipate that someone would look for a hidden item in a specific location, even if the apes knew that the item was no longer there.

More:
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/oct/06/apes-can-guess-what-others-are-thinking-just-like-humans