We describe our recent studies of imitation and cultural transmission in chimpanzees and children,
which question late twentieth-century characterizations of children as imitators, but chimpanzees as
emulators. As emulation entails learning only about the results of others’ actions, it has been
thought to curtail any capacity to sustain cultures. Recent chimpanzee diffusion experiments
have by contrast documented a significant capacity for copying local behavioural traditions.
Additionally, in recent ‘ghost’ experiments with no model visible, chimpanzees failed to replicate
the object movements on which emulation is supposed to focus. We conclude that chimpanzees
rely more on imitation and have greater cultural capacities than previously acknowledged. However,
we also find that they selectively apply a range of social learning processes that include emulation.
Recent studies demonstrating surprisingly unselective ‘over-imitation’ in children suggest that
children’s propensity to imitate has been underestimated too. We discuss the implications of
these developments for the nature of social learning and culture in the two species. Finally, our
new experiments directly address cumulative cultural learning. Initial results demonstrate a relative
conservatism and conformity in chimpanzees’ learning, contrasting with cumulative cultural learn-
ing in young children. This difference may contribute much to the contrast in these species’
capacities for cultural evolution