Even under majority influence, great apes fail to copy novel actions

It remains unclear when and why the ability to copy actions evolved and also its uniqueness to humans. Thus far, a lack of valid evidence for spontaneous action copying by other apes supports the view that only humans spontaneously copy actions. However, wild apes have access to multiple demonstrators and have been demonstrated to be affected by majority influences, thus raising the possibility that ape action copying might require a majority ratio of demonstrators to observers. We tested for spontaneous ape action copying across all four non-human great ape species using a demonstrator majority. Nineteen captive mother-reared apes (across 4 species) were tested (Raage=9-52; Mage=18.63; ♀=14; ♂=5). All failed to copy the demonstrated actions, despite observing it in a majority influence condition. We conclude that culture in non-human great apes is more likely supported by variants of social learning which regulate frequencies, rather than forms, of observed behaviours.