Chimpanzees understand psychological states – the question is which ones and to what extent
Abstract
New data suggest that relatively drastic revisions are needed in our theoretical accounts of what other animal species understand about the psychological states of others. Specifically, chimpanzees seem to understand some things about what others do and do not see, or have and have not seen in the immediate past, as well as some things about others' goal-directed activities. This is especially so in competitive situations. They clearly do not have a human-like theory of mind, however, and so the challenge is to specify precisely how ape and human social cognition are similar and different.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The most distinctive cognitive capacities expressed by humans are the ability to use symbolic language in a recursive manner and to make inferences regarding the mental states of others (theory of mind).
“Arguably, the most distinctive cognitive capacities expressed by humans are the ability to use symbolic language in a recursive manner (17) and to make inferences regarding the mental states of others, i.e., “theory of mind” (18).”
From Evolution of increased glia–neuron ratios in the human frontal cortex (2006) · cites this paper as [18]
Cites
The Cultural Origins of Human Cognition
Tomasello, M. (2009) · doi:10.2307/j.ctvjsf4jc · Cited by 6,368 · see citing works
Self-citationDo chimpanzees know what conspecifics know?
Hare, B. A., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2001) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1006/anbe.2000.1518 · Cited by 1,089 · see citing works
Self-citationChimpanzees know what conspecifics do and do not see
Hare, B. A., Call, J., Agnetta, B., & Tomasello, M. (2000) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1006/anbe.1999.1377 · Cited by 1,082 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Domestication of Social Cognition in Dogs
Hare, B. A., Brown, M. L., Williamson, C., & Tomasello, M. (2002) · Science · doi:10.1126/science.1072702 · Cited by 1,048 · see citing works
Self-citationSocial learning in animals : the roots of culture
Heyes, C. M., & Galef, B. G. (1996) · Cited by 949 · see citing works
What Young Chimpanzees Know about Seeing
Povinelli, D. J., Eddy, T. J., Hobson, R. P., & Tomasello, M. (1996) · Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development · doi:10.2307/1166159 · Cited by 648 · see citing works
Self-citationA Nonverbal False Belief Task: The Performance of Children and Great Apes
Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (1999) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00028 · Cited by 553 · see citing works
Self-citationChimpanzee minds: suspiciously human?
Povinelli, D. J., & Vonk, J. M. (2003) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(03)00053-6 · Cited by 549 · see citing works
Five primate species follow the visual gaze of conspecifics
Tomasello, M., Call, J., & Hare, B. A. (1998) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1006/anbe.1997.0636 · Cited by 484 · see citing works
Self-citationThe learning and use of gestural signals by young chimpanzees: A trans-generational study
Tomasello, M., Call, J., Nagell, K., Olguin, R., & Carpenter, M. (1994) · Primates · doi:10.1007/bf02382050 · Cited by 432 · see citing works
Self-citationDo apes and children know what they have seen?
Call, J., & Carpenter, M. (2001) · Animal Cognition · doi:10.1007/s100710100078 · Cited by 416 · see citing works
Self-citationTomasello, M. (1996) · Elsevier eBooks · doi:10.1016/b978-012273965-1/50016-9 · Cited by 270 · see citing works
Self-citationChimpanzees, Pan troglodytes, follow gaze direction geometrically
Tomasello, M., Hare, B. A., & Agnetta, B. (1999) · Animal Behaviour · doi:10.1006/anbe.1999.1192 · Cited by 236 · see citing works
Self-citationChimpanzee gaze following in an object-choice task
Call, J., Hare, B. A., & Tomasello, M. (1998) · Animal Cognition · doi:10.1007/s100710050013 · Cited by 232 · see citing works
Self-citationCall, J., & Tomasello, M. (1998) · Journal of comparative psychology · doi:10.1037/0735-7036.112.2.192 · Cited by 226 · see citing works
Self-citationToward a Science of Other Minds: Escaping the Argument by Analogy
Povinelli, D. J., Bering, J. M., & Giambrone, S. (2000) · Cognitive Science · doi:10.1016/s0364-0213(00)00023-9 · Cited by 213 · see citing works
Can competitive paradigms increase the validity of experiments on primate social cognition?
Hare, B. A. (2001) · Animal Cognition · doi:10.1007/s100710100084 · Cited by 203 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Ontogeny of Chimpanzee Gestural Signals
Tomasello, M., Call, J., Warren, J. A., Frost, G. T., Carpenter, M., & Nagell, K. (1997) · Evolution of Communication · doi:10.1075/eoc.1.2.04tom · Cited by 197 · see citing works
Self-citationCall, J. (2001) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(00)01728-9 · Cited by 129 · see citing works
Self-citationToward a Science of Other Minds: Escaping the Argument by Analogy
Povinelli, D. J., Bering, J. M., & Giambrone, S. (2000) · Cognitive Science · doi:10.1207/s15516709cog2403_7 · Cited by 126 · see citing works
Reasoning about Beliefs: A Human Specialization?
Povinelli, D. J., & Giambrone, S. (2001) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/1467-8624.00307 · Cited by 82 · see citing works
Absence of knowledge attribution and self-recognition in young chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).
Povinelli, D. J., Rulf, A. B., & Bierschwale, D. T. (1994) · Journal of comparative psychology · doi:10.1037/0735-7036.108.1.74 · Cited by 67 · see citing works
Chimpanzees follow gaze direction geometrically.
Tomasello, M., Hare, B. A., & Agnetta, B. (1999) · Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Self-citationTomasello, M. (1996) · Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development · doi:10.1111/j.1540-5834.1996.tb00491.x · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition
Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., Call, J., Behne, T., & Moll, H. (2005) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x05000129 · Cited by 4,882 · see citing works
Self-citationThe evolution of foresight: What is mental time travel, and is it unique to humans?
Suddendorf, T., & Corballis, M. C. (2007) · Behavioral and Brain Sciences · doi:10.1017/s0140525x07001975 · Cited by 2,031 · see citing works
The Social Brain: Neural Basis of Social Knowledge
Adolphs, R. (2009) · Annual Review of Psychology · doi:10.1146/annurev.psych.60.110707.163514 · Cited by 1,827 · see citing works
Do humans have two systems to track beliefs and belief-like states
Apperly, I. A., & Butterfill, S. A. (2009) · Psychological Review · doi:10.1037/a0016923 · Cited by 1,261 · see citing works
"Theory of Mind" in Schizophrenia: A Review of the Literature
Brune, M. (2005) · Schizophrenia Bulletin · doi:10.1093/schbul/sbi002 · Cited by 1,044 · see citing works
Human-like social skills in dogs?
Hare, B., & Tomasello, M. (2005) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2005.07.003 · Cited by 967 · see citing works
Self-citationEvolution of the brain and intelligence
ROTH, G., & DICKE, U. (2005) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2005.03.005 · Cited by 890 · see citing works
Frith, C. D., & Frith, U. (2007) · Current Biology · doi:10.1016/j.cub.2007.05.068 · Cited by 759 · see citing works
Theory of mind—evolution, ontogeny, brain mechanisms and psychopathology
Brüne, M., & Brüne-Cohrs, U. (2006) · Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews · doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2005.08.001 · Cited by 540 · see citing works
The social brain: allowing humans to boldly go where no other species has been
Frith, U., & Frith, C. (2010) · Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rstb.2009.0160 · Cited by 443 · see citing works
Evolution of increased glia–neuron ratios in the human frontal cortex
Sherwood, C. C., Stimpson, C. D., Raghanti, M. A., Wildman, D. E., Uddin, M., Grossman, L. I., Goodman, M., Redmond, J. C., Bonar, C. J., Erwin, J. M., et al. (2006) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1073/pnas.0605843103 · Cited by 342 · see citing works
Johnson, D. D. P. (2005) · Human Nature · doi:10.1007/s12110-005-1017-0 · Cited by 323 · see citing works
Social cognition and the evolution of language: constructing cognitive phylogenies
Fitch, W. T., Huber, L., & Bugnyar, T. (2010) · Neuron · doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2010.03.011 · Cited by 264 · see citing works
Fedorenko, E., & Varley, R. (2016) · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · doi:10.1111/nyas.13046 · Cited by 247 · see citing works
Segregation of the human medial prefrontal cortex in social cognition
Bzdok, D., Langner, R., Schilbach, L., Engemann, D. A., Laird, A. R., Fox, P. T., & Eickhoff, S. B. (2013) · Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · doi:10.3389/fnhum.2013.00232 · Cited by 229 · see citing works
Brain regions for perceiving and reasoning about other people in school-aged children
Saxe, R. R., Whitfield-Gabrieli, S., Scholz, J., & Pelphrey, K. A. (2009) · Child Development · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2009.01325.x · Cited by 234 · see citing works
Human brain evolution: insights from microarrays
Preuss, T. M., Cáceres, M., Oldham, M. C., & Geschwind, D. H. (2004) · Nature Reviews Genetics · doi:10.1038/nrg1469 · Cited by 215 · see citing works
Theory of mind in animals: current and future directions
Krupenye, C., & Call, J. (2019) · WIREs Cognitive Science · doi:10.1002/wcs.1503 · Cited by 180 · see citing works
Self-citationPrimate cognition: from ‘what now?’ to ‘what if
Barrett, L. (2003) · Trends in Cognitive Sciences · doi:10.1016/j.tics.2003.09.005 · Cited by 169 · see citing works
Science, sentience, and animal welfare
Jones, R. C. (2013) · Biology & Philosophy · doi:10.1007/s10539-012-9351-1 · Cited by 119 · see citing works
Do great apes use emotional expressions to infer desires?
Buttelmann, D., Call, J., & Tomasello, M. (2009) · Developmental Science · doi:10.1111/j.1467-7687.2008.00802.x · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Self-citationNo evidence that monkeys attribute mental states to animated shapes in the Heider–Simmel videos
Schafroth, J. L., Basile, B. M., Martin, A., & Murray, E. A. (2021) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/s41598-021-82702-6 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
- Authors
- Tomasello, M., Call, J., & Hare, B.
- Affiliations
- Max Planck Society (DE)
- Corresponding author
- Tomasello, Michael
- Venue
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2003-04
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 153-156
- ISSN
- 1364-6613 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1984242163
- Cited by
- 573
- References
- 24
- Citations by year
- 2026: 30 · 2025: 8 · 2024: 34 · 2023: 35 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 10 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 34 · 2015: 23 · 2014: 19 · 2013: 29 · 2012: 36
- FWCI
- 4.16
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Trends in Cognitive Sciences (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Child and Animal Learning Development
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Face Recognition and Perception
- Keywords
- chimpanzees, theory of mind, social cognition, goal-directed behavior, visual perspective taking, competitive environment, primate cognition, human-animal comparison
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review