Abstract:
My encounters with other primates have fundamentally changed the way I see them, myself, and the rest of Nature. Such experiences frequently challenge my conventional scientific training, which emphasized detachment and reductionism in the service of “objectivity.” Drawing on my research on chimpanzee prosocial behaviors like consolation and underlying emotions like empathy, I’ll discuss recent debates about the presence and extent of great ape prosociality. I will argue that some studies inadvertently create an unlevel playing field, allowing us to test human abilities in other species, but unlikely to illuminate their own rich socioemotional and cognitive worlds. I will argue that a less human-centric paradigm would bring us closer to understanding other animals on their own terms, rather than comparing them to a human standard of which they often inevitably “fall short.” I’ll conclude by discussing the need to go beyond anthropocentric paradigms not just in the interest of good science, but in order to reimagine our relationship to other species more broadly.
Bio:
Dr. Christine E. Webb is a broadly trained primatologist with expertise in social behavior, cognition, and emotion. She has worked with humans’ closest living relatives in diverse settings for over 15 years. She investigates how other primates manage and resolve conflicts and underlying affective states like empathy and jealousy, countering longstanding notions that these complex socioemotional capacities are human-unique. She simultaneously collaborates with philosophers to reimagine the role of science in the growing charge to grant moral status to other animals. Her latest work critically engages with anthropocentrism in primatology, science, and society. She is interested in doing and teaching science that reimagines relationships between humans and the more-than-human world, including those between scientists and the beings with whom they work.