TITLE: From social attention to social expectations: a developmental and comparative perspective

ABSTRACT:
In this talk I will report on a series of studies focusing on the development of social expectations and social accountability through ontogeny and phylogeny. In particular, I will investigate the interplay between social attention, social expectations and cooperation. First I will report on studies on joint attention and voice following in human infants, chimpanzees and dogs. Then I will report on the emergence of social norms in young children, in particular in relation to the social institution of property. Here I will present a series of studies investigating the ontogeny, phylogeny and cross-cultural variation of property norms and concepts, highlighting the role that communication and cooperation play in the sustainability of property as a social agreement. I will then show how preschoolers have a clear sense of procedural justice and hold their peers accountable in terms of the procedure used to allocate resources. Finally, following up on the topic of cooperation and resources allocation, I will present a series of studies on cooperation in orangutans, assessing what factors facilitate or inhibit collaboration, whether their underlying motivation is self- or other-regarding and ultimately, to what degree orangutans develop specific social expectations concerning how others will behave in situations in which both cooperation and selfish defection are possible.