As humans have wondered about their own capacities for thought and imagination, so too have they wondered about the mental ...

Humans regularly cooperate and share resources with other, unrelated humans in different social groups, often without any immediate, reciprocated benefits. The phenomenon has been considered unique to ...

Bonobos are highly intelligent primates capable of learning patterns, adapting strategies, and responding quickly to visual ...

A lot of human society requires what’s called a “theory of mind”—the ability to infer the mental state of another person and adjust our actions based on what we expect they know and are thinking. We ...

Like humans, some bonobos cooperate with members of other social groups, even when they don’t receive immediate benefits in return. This finding, published Thursday in the journal Science, may offer ...

Can animals play pretend? It took a tea party with a bonobo to find out. In a set of experiments, a team of researchers offered a bonobo named Kanzi invisible juice and grapes, presenting the tests as ...

Why the Latest Science Leads Us to a New Theory of Human Nature, by Jonathan Leaf (Bombardier, 320 pp., $21) Ever since Darwin, biologists have believed that much could be learned about human nature ...