Staff profile

Research

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

I completed my bachelor's and master's degrees at the University of Kent and my PhD at Durham University, where I now work. My postdoctoral placement is funded through a grant obtained with Prof Zanna Clay and Dr Edwin van Leeuwen (Utrecht University). We are investigating how social structures influence individual and collective decision-making and collective action.

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 primarily work at Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust in Zambia, where I also sit on the Research Advisory Board.

• Empathy
• Great ape social behaviour
• Conflict management
• Comparative psychology
• Collective action
• Decision-making
• Social structures

Chapter in book

• Brooker, J. S., Webb, C. E., & Clay, Z. (2022). Primate empathy: A flexible and multi-componential phenomenon. In M. J. Beran, & B. L. Schwartz (Eds.), Primate Cognitive Studies (505-531). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108955836.020

Journal Article

• Brooker, J. S., Webb, C. E., van Leeuwen, E. J. C., Kordon, S., de Waal, F. B. M., & Clay, Z. (2025). Bonobos and chimpanzees overlap in sexual behaviour patterns during social tension. Royal Society Open Science, 12(3), Article 242031. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.242031
• Kordon, S., Webb, C. E., Brooker, J. S., de Waal, F. B., & Clay, Z. (2024). Factors shaping socio-emotional trajectories in sanctuary-living bonobos: a longitudinal approach. Royal Society Open Science, 11(12), Article 240435. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.240435
• Sandars, G., Brooker, J. S., & Clay, Z. (2024). ChimpanSEE, ChimpanDO: Grooming and play contagion in chimpanzees. PLoS ONE, 19(11), Article e0312467. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0312467
• Brooker, J. S., Webb, C. E., de Waal, F. B. M., & Clay, Z. (2024). The expression of empathy in human's closest relatives, bonobos and chimpanzees: current and future directions. Biological Reviews, 99(4), 1556-1575. https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.13080
• van Leeuwen, E. J., Staes, N., Brooker, J. S., Kordon, S., Nolte, S., Clay, Z., Eens, M., & Stevens, J. M. (2023). Group-specific expressions of co-feeding tolerance in bonobos and chimpanzees preclude dichotomous species generalizations. iScience, 26(12), Article 108528. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2023.108528
• Brooker, J. S., Webb, C. E., & Clay, Z. (2021). Fellatio among male sanctuary-living chimpanzees during a period of social tension. Behaviour, 158, 77-87. https://doi.org/10.1163/1568539x-bja10053
• Brooker, J. S. (2016). An investigation of the auditory perception of western lowland gorillas in an enrichment study. Zoo Biology, 35(5), 398-408. https://doi.org/10.1002/zoo.21312