Staff profile

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.

• Empathy
• Great ape social behaviour
• Conflict management
• Comparative psychology

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.

Chapter in book

• Brooker, Jake. S., Webb, Christine. E. & Clay, Zanna (2022). Primate empathy: A flexible and multi-componential phenomenon. In Primate Cognitive Studies. Beran, Michael J. & Schwartz, Bennett L. Cambridge University Press. 505-531.

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.