Many primates go even further, demonstrating what de Waal calls community concern. On another occasion, at Yerkes Field Station, Jimoh the dominant chimpanzee detects a clandestine mating between Socko, an adolescent male, and one of Jimoh's favourite females. Instead of chasing his rival away, he relentlessly pursues him, intent on catching him. Soon everyone has joined in. Good Natured focuses on the central role of reciprocity in primate social groups, and the ways in which animals may forge lasting alliances through grooming, sharing food or other acts of goodwill.
Chimpanzees go further.
For example, during experiments in which he gave a chimpanzee group freshly cut branches, prized for their tasty leaves, some animals were noticeably more generous. If Gwinnie obtained one of the large bundles . . . Mai, in contrast, shared readily and was typically surrounded by a cluster of beggars. Gwinnie and other stingy personalities encountered far more threats and protestations than generous sharers such as Mai. Our understanding of the roots of our moral sense has long been obscured by our failure to recognise the centrality of our social nature, de Waal believes.