Dr. Robert Sapolsky, Stanford University, CA
The males in this unique troop of baboons show less aggression and more cooperative behaviors than is usual for baboons. Dr. Sapolsky's research is measuring how this is happening and testing the benefits of living in a group that has learned to behave more cooperatively.

Dr. Robert Sapolsky spent his early years as a primatologist studying one particular troop of baboons in Kenya's Masai Mara National Park. Then, suddenly, in 1985, many of the male members of the troop were killed due to a virus and some shootings. Sapolsky felt the loss so deeply that he left and went to work with two other troops on the far side of the park, and did not return for six years.

Then in 1992, Sapolsky took his new wife and colleague, Dr. Lisa Share, to visit the site of the old troop. Sapolsky thought this trip would be the equivalent of going to visit a family cemetery. Yet, when he arrived at the site, he found a thriving troop of baboons, with a few unique characteristics. Whereas male baboons, especially adolescents, are normally aggressive and violent towards each other, the new males of this troop seemed not only to be getting along and sitting quietly together, but were, in rare moments, actually grooming each other.

"For a primatologist, to observe male baboons sitting quietly together was astounding and unheard of," said Sapolsky, "In my 20 years of observing baboons I have only seen males groom each other for about 30 seconds. When I saw this troop, I thought to myself, 'What is this, a baboon commune?'" For Sapolsky, the unique non-aggressive behavior of the males in this troop presented a social anomaly - and an opportunity to advance an understanding of how societies can develop toward a less aggressive, more forgiving norm.

Dr. Sapolsky, a neurobiologist, still spends the majority of his time either in the lab researching neurological disease or in the field researching stress-related disorders among baboons. However, Sapolsky's surprise encounter led him somewhere he'd never expected - to examine forgiveness as a function of reconciliative behavior among his old troop in Masai Mara Park.

Over the next three years, Sapolsky plans to study how cooperative, reconciliative behavior is encouraged and passed down within this special troop of baboons. Sapolsky's research is three-pronged: to measure the increased rate of reconciliative behavior in this troop, to observe and understand how these behaviors are taught and encouraged, and to test the theory that engaging in reconciliative and forgiving behavior improves health, strengthens the immune system and reduces stress-related disease.

Dr. Robert Sapolsky is a Professor of Neuroscience, Molecular and Genetic Medicine at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. Dr. Sapolsky has been a MacArthur Fellow, is the author of numerous books, journal articles and chapters, and has twice been a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Award. Dr. Sapolsky's nominated books include "The Trouble With Testosterone," and "Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers." Dr. Sapolsky's project on forgiveness is fully funded by the Campaign for Forgiveness Research.

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