Are We Smart Enough To Know How Smart Animals Are?

Author of many influential books on primate social behavior and intelligence, de Waal (psychology, Emory Univ.; director, Living Links Ctr., Yerkes National Primate Research Ctr., Atlanta; The Age of Empathy) here takes a critical look at the history of his own field, now called "evolutionary cognition." Combining the best research practices from two opposing scientific disciplines—ethology and comparative psychology—he seeks to understand animals on their terms rather than ours. Easier said than done, however. As de Waal points out, devising species-appropriate intelligence tests requires a great deal of smarts on our part. But it seems that the better we get at testing animals, the more knowledgeable they appear to be. Drawing upon personal experiences, anecdotes, and research findings from a broad range of animal cognition studies, de Waal brilliantly addresses the enormous amount of skepticism and criticism that has plagued this discipline.