Curiosity is adaptive, enhances learning, and reduces uncertainty. Social curiosity is defined as the motivation to gain information about the actions, relationships, and psychology of others. Little is known about the developmental and evolutionary roots of such social curiosity. Here, across three comparative studies, we investigate whether chimpanzees (N = 27) and young children (4 - 6 years old, N = 94) show particular interest in social interactions among third parties. Chimpanzees and children preferred to watch videos of social interactions compared to videos of a single conspecific (Experiment 1), and young children and male chimpanzees even paid a material cost to gain social information (Experiment 2). Finally, our results show that boys become more curious about negative social interactions whereas girls become more curious about positive social interactions as they develop, while chimpanzees demonstrated no preference for negative versus positive social interactions (Experiment 3). Taken together, these findings suggest that social curiosity emerges early in human ontogeny and is shared with one of our two closest living relatives, the chimpanzees.

Description of the data and file structure

To test whether chimpanzees and children are curious about social interactions and whether social information is rewarding, we designed a simple setup using two “Curiosity Boxes”. A tablet was placed inside each box, which allowed the experimenter to simultaneously present participants with two different videos. In Experiment 1, participants were presented with a video of social interactions between conspecifics in one box, and a video of a conspecific acting alone in the other box. In Experiment 2, participants were presented with a reward-dispenser that periodically dispensed rewards (marbles for children, and jackfruit seeds for chimpanzees) in one box, and a video of a social interaction in the other box. In Experiment 3, participants were presented with videos of positive social interactions (like playing and grooming) in one box, and videos of negative social interactions (like conflict) in the other box. Participants were given a short amount of time to explore both boxes, and we recorded the length of time that they spent watching each video or collecting the rewards. We also measured the maximum height at which children raised the box doors.

Variables

ID: Participant ID
Age_Months: Participant age in months
Gender: Participant gender
Trial_Number: Trial Number
Social_Video_Side: Which box the social video was presented in
Video_Names: Names of video stimuli
Fam_Right_Box: Whether participants opened the box during familiarization with the right box
Fam_Left_Box: Whether participants opened the box during familiarization of the left box
Opens_RightVideo: Whether participants opened the right box
Opens_LeftVideo: Whether participants opened the left box
RightVideo_Height: How high participants opened the right box
LeftVideo_Height: How high participants opened the left box
RightVideo_Time: How long participants spent watching the video in the right box
LeftVideo_Time: How long participants spent watching the video in the left box
N_Switch: Number of times participants switched between boxes
First_Box: Which box did participants open first

Code/software

Microsoft Excel or similar

Version changes

15-Apr-2025: Added code for all analyses that appear in the related manuscript

Chimpanzees and children are more curious about social interactions than individual actions

Data files

Abstract

Description of the data and file structure

Variables

Code/software

Version changes

Chimpanzees and children are more curious about social interactions than individual actions

Data files

Abstract

README: Chimpanzees and children are more curious about social interactions than individual actions

Description of the data and file structure

Variables

Code/software

Version changes