Frans de Waal

Frans de Waal

C.H. Candler Professor Emeritus at EMORY University, Atlanta, GA

Older man with short gray hair and glasses, wearing a striped shirt and dark jacket, looking at the camera against a plain light background.

Dr. Frans B. M. de Waal is a Dutch/American behavioral biologist and primatologist known for his work on the behavior and social intelligence of primates. His first book, Chimpanzee Politics (1982), compared the schmoozing and scheming of chimpanzees involved in power struggles with that of human politicians. His scientific work has been published in hundreds of technical articles in journals such as Science, Nature, Scientific American, and outlets specialized in animal behavior.

His popular books - translated into 20+ languages - have made him one of the world's most visible primatologists. His latest books are Mama’s Last Hug (Norton, 2019) and Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist (Norton, 2022).

De Waal is C. H. Candler Professor Emeritus at Emory University and Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Utrecht University. He has been elected to the (U.S.) National Academy of Sciences as well as the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2007, Time declared him one of "The World's 100 Most Influential People Today."

Everything Videos Articles
Morality Without Religion
Can we dispatch with religion altogether?
Frans de Waal
The Biological Basis of Moral Relativism
Biology gives us the general moral sense and the general ability to develop a moral system but the specific rules that we apply in our society are not necessarily given by biology.
Frans de Waal
Bonobo Taboos: Examining the Primate Hippy Image
Bonobos have sex with everybody basically all the time. Well, not everybody. 
Frans de Waal
We Don’t Need an Evolutionary Explanation for Everything
I feel this tendency to come up with an evolutionary explanation for basically everything under the sun is not needed.
Frans de Waal
The Ultimatum Game: What Primates Can Teach Us About Inequality
The ultimatum game is the ultimate test of fairness, and chimpanzees passed the test by going for the fair options.  
Frans de Waal
It’s Not a Dog-Eat-Dog World, After All
Darwin literally said that many of the social instincts, as he called it, of the animals are represented in our human morality.
Frans de Waal
The Moral Heroism of Chimpanzees
Darwin may not have seen that a seemingly altruistic primate can also be quite disastrously aggressive. 
Frans de Waal
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