Chimps offer clues to poltical candidates’ behavior

I had a very interesting conversation recently with radio host Trent Rice. We were marveling and puzzling about Donald Trump's successes. I had already been exploring some potential lines of inquiry and decided to intensify that search.

A good friend of mine and primate expert and I have, for years, been comparing notes on the behavior of friends and family members with special emphasis on 'Chimpy Behavior.”

In researching this topic I ran into a fascinating piece in the Harvard University Gazette Richard Wrangham, a professor of anthropology who has done some important studies on Chimps in East Africa. The article notes, 'The more humans study chimpanzees, the more similarities they find between the behaviors of apes and people.” Of course scientists tell us that ' … humans are evolutionarily close to other great apes, with about 97 percent of our genes DNA matching up.”

Intrigued, I decided to drill down on this information and see if it might reveal some insights into the political behavior especially of our presidential candidates. I was especially fascinated with the group interaction among the candidates in 2016 rather than just the singe individual. You don't have to accept evolution to read the following - just enjoy the parallels.

The Jane Goodall Institute of Canada provides some intriguing morsels from years of study on Chimpanzee behavior.

Dominance Hierarchies. For example, 'Within a chimp community, a male hierarchy, ordered more or less in linear fashion, establishes social standing, with one male at the top or 'alpha” position. Other factors that determine dominance and social status are physical fitness, aggressiveness, skill at fighting, ability to form coalitions, intelligence, and other personality traits. Status is either maintained or changed through communication and social interactions, such as physical competition and grooming.”

I shared this with several colleagues who noted that in the 2016 race to the White House There us a clear manifestation of 'alpha” behavior and certainly aggressiveness, communication (Twitter, interviews), and social interaction (rallies). The contest for nomination appears to be a struggle between two Alpha Males in the GOP Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, for dominance. Jeb Bush's weakness now comes into much sharper focus. If he were a chimp he'd lose power pretty fast.

The research further revealed that, 'The males of a community regularly patrol their boundaries, and if they encounter individuals of a neighboring community they may attack with extreme brutality.” Wow! Thankfully we seem to have at least toned down the brutality to verbal and symbolic brutality but there is little doubt that the candidates in both the GOP and Democratic contests have been 'patrolling their boundaries” and attacking as one encroaches on the other - Bernie Sanders encroaching on Hillary Clinton's lead in the polls 'territory” which caused Clinton's Chimpy attacks on Sanders or Donald Trump threatening Cruz and Rubio boundaries.

Warfare and violence. For East African Chimps it is true that 'Since there is a hierarchy system in chimp societies, most disputes within a community can be solved by threats rather than actual attacks. They use gestures and postures to indicate threat, such as: tipping the head, making hitting gestures, flapping hands in the air, swaying branches, throwing objects, and charging toward another. These gestures are often combined with vocalizations.”

The political campaign machinery, the 'dirty tricks”, all of the posturing and gesturing, the shouting, the invectives hurled at each other and obviously the 'hitting gestures, flapping hands in the air” and so forth is classic Chimpy behavior.

Calls. As far as the vocalization and calls Chimps and political candidates use almost identical verbal communication ' … alarm calls, mating calls, and greeting vocalizations, … 30 different calls, which can sometimes be heard up to 2 miles away … a mixture of grunts, barks, and pant hoots.” Yup, sound like a caucus or primary election campaign to me.

Postures and Gestures. Goodall avers that, 'When angry, chimpanzees may stand upright, swagger, wave their arms, throw branches or rocks - all with bristling hair and screaming or with lips bunched in ferocious scowls. Male chimpanzees proclaim their dominance with spectacular charging displays.”

I'm pretty sure that our presidential contenders would love to throw rocks at each other, but all the debate formats so far have prohibited that! But WOW do they scowl, have hair bristling (see Trump), and certainly swagger.

So as you follow the 2016 race to the White House keep in mind these interesting behavioral manifestations of power and leadership from another species.

' Steffen Schmidt is professor of political science at Iowa State University. Comments: steffenschmidt2005@gmail.com