Staff profile
Overview
https://internal.durham.ac.uk/images/profiles/17969/StaffProfile_Me.jpg

Affiliation | Room number | Telephone |
---|---|---|
Research Associate in the Department of Psychology |
Biography
Research
I am a PhD student researching individual variation in empathic tendencies of chimpanzees and bonobos. I am interested in the emotional responding of our closest living relatives and how they manage and resolve conflicts, in partiular with a comparative approach. My project with Dr Zanna Clay is funded through a grant from the Templeton World Charity Foundation.
I have worked with captive, wild, and sanctuary-living populations of primates. My current research is focused on great apes but I have interests and some experience in studying human populations.
I completed my Bachelor's in Psychology and Master's in Evolution and Human Behaviour at the University of Kent.

Research interests
- Empathy
- Great ape social behaviour
- Conflict management
- Comparative psychology
Media Contacts
Available for media contact about:
- Conflict and resolution: I study how chimpanzees and bonobos mitigate social tension.
- Primate behaviour: I am interested in the origins of human behaviour from an evolutionary perspective.
- Aggression: Studying consolation as a marker of empathy in great apes involves observing conflicts and how involved parties and bystanders respond to different aggressive actions.
- Gender differences: I am interested in how individual characteristics influence empathic behaviour, including sex and age classes.
Publications
Chapter in book
Journal Article
- Brooker, Jake S., Webb, Christine E. & Clay, Zanna (2020). Fellatio among male sanctuary-living chimpanzees during a period of social tension. Behaviour 1-11.
- Brooker, Jake S. (2016). An investigation of the auditory perception of western lowland gorillas in an enrichment study. Zoo Biology 35(5): 398-408.