Chimpanzees Refute Adolescent Risk Peak, Highlight Supervision as Key

Wild chimpanzees show no adolescent peak in physical risk-taking. Instead, risky moves like leaping and dropping are most common in early childhood (2–5 years) and decline with age, with adolescents (10–15) being less likely than younger youngsters and no strong sex differences observed. The study suggests that caregiver supervision plays a major role in shaping risk-taking, a pattern that may help explain human development as well. In lab tasks, chimps also become more risk-averse with age, a parallel to human risk behavior across the lifespan.