Katherine Cronin

Broadly speaking, my research focuses on the social behavior of nonhuman primates. Specifically, I am interested in the factors that promote and inhibit cooperative behaviors between individuals. I address this question both from an ultimate, evolutionary perspective and from a proximate, psychological perspective.

At the ultimate level, I use the comparative method, investigating cooperative behaviors across species that have evolved in very different social contexts. At the proximate level, I am interested in how social relationships, the social climate of the group, past experience and hormones influence the emergence of cooperative behaviors within species.

My current research focuses primarily on chimpanzees living at Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust in Zambia, a sanctuary where chimpanzees live in large, stable social groups in a semi-free ranging environment.