Robert Hinde facts for kids

Robert Aubrey Hinde (October 26, 1923 – December 23, 2016) was a British scientist. He studied animals, their behavior, and how minds develop. He was a professor of Zoology at the University of Cambridge. Hinde is famous for his work on animal behaviour and developmental psychology.

Early Life and Interests

Robert Hinde was born in Norwich, England, on October 26, 1923. His father, Ernest, was a doctor. Even though their family's textile business faced challenges, Robert's immediate family was comfortable because of his father's medical work.

His family loved nature. They often went on long hikes in the mountains. This helped Robert become very interested in birdwatching from a young age.

When he was 14, Robert went to Oundle School, a boarding school for boys. At Oundle, he was encouraged to study "harder sciences" like chemistry, instead of natural sciences. Even though he later returned to studying nature, Robert believed this training in physical sciences helped him think clearly in his career.

Military Service and Peace

In 1940, at age 17, Hinde joined the Royal Air Force (RAF). This was one year after England declared war on Germany. He stayed in the RAF for six years and became a Flight Lieutenant. He left in 1946 to study at St John's College, Cambridge.

Throughout his life, Robert Hinde strongly believed in peace. During World War II, he saw war as a sad necessity. But after the war, he realized that "the preciousness of peace" was more important than winning battles. He spent the rest of his life working with groups that tried to prevent wars. One such group was the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs. This group worked behind the scenes to give scientists' advice to leaders. Hinde especially stressed the need to understand different levels of fighting, from small arguments to big world wars.

Education and Discoveries

After leaving the RAF in 1946, Hinde went to St John's College, Cambridge. He studied chemistry, physiology, and zoology. He did very well in zoology in 1948. While at Cambridge, he also helped run the Cambridge Bird Club. He published several papers about bird behavior.

One famous study involved him watching tits (a type of bird) opening milk jugs left outside homes. This work was important for understanding how animals learn from each other. He even met a young David Attenborough there, and they helped each other with dissections.

In 1948, Hinde went to Balliol College, Oxford. He studied under David Lack. Although Lack wanted him to study jackdaws and rooks, Hinde convinced him to let him study the great tit. Lack helped Hinde learn to be critical and write clearly. However, Hinde said the biggest influence on his work was Niko Tinbergen, who came to Oxford in 1950. Tinbergen was becoming famous for his "four ‘why’s’ of behavior," which helped Hinde learn how to study animal behavior scientifically. Hinde earned his PhD in 1950. His thesis was the first detailed study of the great tit's yearly behavior.

Studying Animal Behavior

Research at Cambridge

After his PhD, Hinde became a curator at a field station in Madingley, near Cambridge. Even though he wasn't supposed to do his own research, he did! He studied many bird species, looking at things like imprinting (when young animals learn to recognize their parents), how animals are motivated, and how they get used to things. He also studied how canaries build nests. This nest study was special because it combined studying behavior with understanding how hormones affect it.

While at Madingley, Hinde became good friends with John Bowlby, a famous psychologist. Bowlby was interested in using Hinde's scientific way of observing animals to study children. Before this, child psychology mostly focused on other theories. Thanks to Hinde, Bowlby developed his famous theory about how children form strong bonds (attachments) with their parents. Hinde's work helped bring strict, objective observation into child psychology. In return, Bowlby's friendship taught Hinde about how relationships between people affect behavior.

Studying Primates

Monkeys at Madingley

Hinde's interest in how mothers and babies interact led him and Bowlby to set up a rhesus macaque (a type of monkey) colony at Madingley. They believed studying monkey mothers and babies could help them understand human mother-baby interactions. This also allowed them to do experiments. In 1958, they built special pens and a lab for the monkeys.

Their first studies involved carefully writing down the monkeys' behaviors and facial expressions. They used "check sheets" to record what the monkeys did every half-minute. This way of collecting data became a standard method for studying animal behavior. By using these methods, Hinde and his team could measure how often monkeys interacted and how close they were. This helped them understand the quality of their relationships.

They also did studies where they separated mothers from their babies. These studies showed how important the larger social group and relationships were to the monkeys. Hinde's careful scientific approach helped researchers understand the complex social structure of the macaque groups.

Great Ape Field Studies

Because of his work with monkeys, Hinde played a big part in starting several field sites in Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. These sites were for studying great apes like chimpanzees and gorillas. He worked with Louis Leakey, who started many of these sites. Hinde also trained many young researchers who became famous primatologists.

For example, Leakey wanted Jane Goodall to get formal scientific training. She had been working with chimpanzees but didn't have a college degree. Hinde agreed to be her PhD supervisor. He visited her site at Gombe Stream National Park several times. He helped introduce his careful recording methods there. This made Goodall's data more objective and easier to compare over many years.

Hinde also trained Dian Fossey, who studied mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park. Fossey came to Madingley to be Hinde's student before returning to Rwanda. Her work gave detailed information about gorilla social behavior. She later started the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International to help save gorillas.

Hinde also worked with and trained many other primatologists who studied different species. He always stressed the importance of objective, scientific ways of collecting data, which he had made popular through his work with the rhesus macaques.

Child Development Research

In the 1970s and 1980s, Hinde also studied how human mothers and children interact. He used a mix of scientific observation and Bowlby's ideas about relationship quality. Hinde and his second wife, Joan Stephenson-Hinde, used questionnaires and observations in playgroups. They found that a child's interactions with their mother were consistent over time. They also found differences in how boys and girls interacted with their mothers, teachers, and friends.

Hinde also did studies in different cultures, comparing children in Cambridge and Budapest. They found that Hungarian children tended to show more "masculine" and less "feminine" behaviors in their studies.

Later Ideas: Religion and Relationships

In the 1990s, Hinde became more interested in psychological and philosophical ideas about the mind. He retired from Cambridge in 1994 but kept writing a lot about religion and morality. One of his main ideas was whether parts of religion (like beliefs, rituals, and social rules) could be understood using biological principles.

Hinde believed that "it does not matter too much what you believe, for many different cultural beliefs bring meaning to believers’ lives (though differences in religious beliefs can lead to horrendous conflict). But what does matter is how people behave." He also thought about how groups that help each other (pro-social groups) developed. He said that groups where members are kind and cooperative are the most successful. He argued that what we call morality helps manage the conflict between what an individual wants and what is good for the group.

Major Awards

• 1974 – Fellow of the Royal Society (a very important scientific honor)
• 1988 – Commander of the British Empire (CBE)
• 1996 – Royal Medal, Royal Society
• 2003 – Bowlby–Ainsworth Award for Contributions to Attachment Theory and Research

Death

Robert Hinde passed away on December 23, 2016, at the age of 93. He was survived by his second wife, Joan, his six children, eighteen grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.