“We have vastly underestimated apes’ intelligence because of our own sense of superiority”
Published in
1 min readOct 25, 2018
“The problem boils down to not comparing like with like. Most apes involved in psychological experiments are raised in captivity, held in labs or sanctuaries. They frequently haven’t had a full social life involving other apes, and the vast majority haven’t had close social encounters with humans on a regular basis, either.
And yet in experiments, they are frequently exposed to human social behaviours, such as pointing at objects. With no training or exposure to what this means in a social context, it’s not fair to compare their aptitude for understanding what pointing means with a toddler, for example.”
