Self-study
When chimpanzees become angry at other chimpanzees, they often engage in what primatologists call "threat gestures": grunting, spitting, or making abrupt, upsweeping arm movements. ███████████ ████ █████████ ██████ █████ ███████████ ███ ██ ██████ ████████ ████ ████ ██ ███████ ████ ██████ █████ ████ ████ ██ ████ ██████ ████████ ██████ ████ ███████████ ██████ ████████ ███ ██████ ████████ ██ ████████ ████████
"Surprising" Phenomenon
Why do chimps usually fail to follow up threat gestures with physical attacks?
Objective
The correct answer should help show why threat gestures usually aren’t followed by physical attacks. Note that the question stem does not require us to explain why physical attacks aren’t preceded by threat gestures.
3.
Which one of the following, ██ █████ ████ █████ ██ ███████ ███ ███████████ █████ ███ █████ ██████ ████████ ███ ███████████ ██ ████████ ████████
a
Chimpanzees engage in ██████ ████████ ████ ████ ███ █████ ██ █████ ██ ████████ ██ ███████ ██████ ███████
This explains why threat gestures are performed, but doesn’t explain why they aren’t followed by physical attacks. Wouldn’t chimps still want to attack others they’re angry at, even if they’ve demonstrated their status?
b
Making threat gestures █████ ███████████ ████ ██████████ ████████ ███ ███████ █████ ████████ ███████████
If threat gestures can help chimps vent and thereby avoid physical aggression, this explain why the gestures usually don’t result in physical attacks. The gestures help reduce the chimp’s aggressive feelings, which reduces the likelihood of physical attacks.
c
Threat gestures and ████████ ███████ ███ ███ ███ ████ █████ ██ █████ ███████████ ███████ ███████████
This doesn’t change our expectations about threat gestures. If they’re means of displaying aggression, wouldn’t we expect physical attacks to follow?
d
Chimpanzees often respond ██ █████ ████████████ ██████ ████████ ████ ██████ ████████ ██ █████ ████
But why don’t chimps usually attack each other after making threat gestures? We still don’t know.
e
The chimpanzees that ████ █████ ████ ██████ ████████ ███ ███ ████ ████ █████ █████ ████████ ████████ ████████
This deepens our confusion. Why are threat gestures rarely followed by physical attacks? This answer merely points out an extreme example of threats not being followed by attacks. We still don’t know why the attacks fail to occur.