Chimpanzees rationally revise their beliefs

Abstract

The selective revision of beliefs in light of new evidence has been considered one of the hallmarks of human-level rationality. However, tests of this ability in other species are lacking. We examined whether and how chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) update their initial belief about the location of a reward in response to conflicting evidence. Chimpanzees responded to counterevidence in ways predicted by a formal model of rational belief revision: They remained committed to their initial belief when the evidence supporting the alternative belief was weaker, but they revised their initial belief when the supporting evidence was stronger. Results suggest that this pattern of belief revision was guided by the explicit representation and weighing of evidence. Taken together, these findings indicate that chimpanzees metacognitively evaluate conflicting pieces of evidence within a reflective process.