George Constanza, a character from the popular 90‘s sitcom Seinfeld, once shouted: “We’re living in a society here!” during one of his famous rants. 

Chimpanzees would agree which is why they engage in impartial third-party conflict management or “policing.” The hierarchy observed amongst chimpanzees is used to maintain order and keep peace in the group. Peacekeeping may be even more important to the alpha chimpanzees than any personal gain from being in charge.

Primatologists from the University of Zurich, including the study’s lead author Claudia Rudolf von Rohr, studied four groups of chimpanzees living in zoos to bring us this study.

So what qualities are needed to make a chimpanzee a good cop? Do they need a criminology degree? Do they attend an academy? No. All a chimpanzee needs is some good ol’fashioned R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Chimpanzee conflict managers are generally high-ranking males or females that are revered in their community. If a chimpanzee does not hold sway within the group conflicts can go unresolved.

The hierarchy within the group can shift and the researchers witnessed this at the Walter Zoo in the East Switzerland city of Gossau. The group there was experiencing some reconfiguring: new females were being introduced and the ranking of the males was changing. Rudolf von Rohr was excited to see behaviors in the wild being exhibited in the zoo setting as it added another level of depth to the study. What would the social upheaval mean for the dynamics of the group? Would the authority of the current alpha male shift?

The long-reigning alpha male named Ces was replaced by Dig, who had attempted to take the top spot before and failed but managed to succeed, in a peaceful transfer of power, after the introduction of more chimpanzees. Two of the introduced females ranked right under Ces during the observation period.

Researchers were extremely hands-off during the study. They neither encouraged nor asked the zoo to introduce new chimps while they were observing the existing group. They did not induce aggression or separate any chimpanzees. They chose to record only spontaneous behavior.

"The interest in community concern that is highly developed in us humans and forms the basis for our moral behavior is deeply rooted. It can also be observed in our closest relatives," said Rudolf von Rohr. In other words: Chimpanzees and humans see, chimpanzees and humans do.