Summary: A new study finds that chimpanzees, like humans, are affected by being watched: their performance on computer tasks improved on difficult tasks with larger human audiences but declined on simpler ones. This phenomenon, known as the “audience effect,” was previously thought to be unique to humans and linked to reputation management.

The results suggest that sensitivity to being observed may have evolved before human society developed its complex reputation-based social structures.

Key Facts:

• Chimpanzees’ performance improves on difficult tasks but declines on easy tasks with an audience.
• Six-year study observed thousands of trials where chimps completed tasks with human viewers.
• Audience effect may have evolved before human reputation-based societies developed.

When people have an audience watching them, it can change their performance for better or worse.

Now, researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal iScience on November 8 have found that chimpanzees’ performance on computer tasks is influenced by the number of people watching them.

The findings suggest that this “audience effect” predates the development of reputation-based human societies, the researchers say.