Jake Brooker

(he)

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I am a postdoctoral research associate studying comparative psychology in great apes. My research interests include empathy and other emotional processes, decision-making, rationality, conflict management, and individual and group-level variation in the aforementioned concepts.

I have worked with captive, wild, and sanctuary-living populations of primates. My current research is focused on great apes, but I have interests in and some experience studying human populations. I completed my Bachelor's and Master's degrees at the University of Kent and my PhD at Durham University, where I stayed for two postdoctoral placements. I now work at Utrecht University funded by an NWO Veni postdoctoral grant.

Experience

  • 2026–present
    Postdoctoral research associate, Utrecht University
  • 2023–2026
    Postdoctoral research associate, Durham University
  • 2025–2026
    Postdoctoral research associate, Durham University

Education

  • 2023 
    Durham University, PhD in Psychology

Publications

  • 2026
    Social structure as a form of collective intelligence: a new framework, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
  • 2026
    Reassuring body contact promotes social tolerance in bonobos and chimpanzees, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
  • 2025
    Within-species variation eclipses between-species differences in Pan consolation, Evolution and Human Behavior
  • 2025
    Bonobos and chimpanzees overlap in sexual behaviour patterns during social tension, Royal Society Open Science
  • 2024
    The expression of empathy in human's closest relatives, bonobos and chimpanzees: current and future directions, Biological Reviews
  • 2022
    Primate empathy: A flexible and multi-componential phenomenon, Primate Cognitive Studies
  • 2020
    Fellatio among male sanctuary-living chimpanzees during a period of social tension, Behaviour
  • 2016
    An investigation of the auditory perception of western lowland gorillas in an enrichment study, Zoo Biology

Grants and Contracts

  • 2025
    Better together: Investigating the social foundations for collective action in our closest relatives
    Role:
    PI
    Funding Source:
    Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
  • 2022
    Social structure as a form of collective intelligence: Investigating the basis of individual and collective intelligence in our closest living relatives
    Role:
    Named postdoc
    Funding Source:
    Templeton World Charity Foundation

Contact Jake for

  • General
  • Media request
  • Speaking request
  • Consulting / Advising
  • Research collaboration
  • Research supervision