How did the chimp cross the road?
Male chimpanzees may seem aggressive and violent-adult male chimps do kill baby chimps-but a recent study shows male chimps have a caring side after all. A group of psychologists at the University of Stirling in the U.K. observed how 12 chimps in Bossou, Guinea crossed the roads to reach their foraging ground. They saw that when the chimps cross a wide road frequented by trucks and cars, the high-ranking male chimps travel at the front and the back of the group, allowing the females and the youngsters to walk safely in the middle. Chimps also wait for a longer time before they cross a more dangerous road frequented by trucks compared to crossing a more narrow road frequented by pedestrians, suggesting the ability of chimps to evaluate risks.
Source: ScienceNOW
Living the virtual life
Not having much luck recruiting undergrads for your research study? Try recruiting participants from the virtual world! Psychologists from Stanford University suggest that unconscious social behaviours from real life are mimicked in virtual reality. By tracking behaviors of over 1,600 “avatars” on Second Life, a popular online society, psychologists have found that men tend to stand further apart than women when talking, male avatars also stand further apart than female avatars. In addition, when avatars are close to each other, users move their avatars to face slightly to the side of the other avatar, much like how people in real life avert eye contact when their personal space bubble is intruded.
Although researchers caution that not every behavior from the real world may be translated to the virtual world-for example, people’s willingness to take risks online is far greater than in the physical world-virtual society such as Second Life, with its broad demographics and the ability to change a range of variables, may present itself as a possible alternate source of participants for future research studies. So don’t be surprised to see academics setting up virtual labs for their next big study!
Source: Nature
-Mandy Lo
