Robert Aubrey Hinde (26 October 1923 – 23 December 2016) was a British
zoologist
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...
,
ethologist
Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions, and viewing behaviour as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. Behaviourism as a term also describes the scientific and objective ...
and
psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...
.
[Bateson, P., Stevenson-Hinde, J., & Clutton-Brock, T. (2018). Robert Aubrey Hinde CBE. 26 October 1923—23 December 2016. 65, ''Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society.''][Hinde, R.A. (2010-02-09, 2010-03-04, 2010-03-25). Hinde, Robert (Part 1 of 7). An Oral History of British Science. (L. Brodie, Interviewer). ''British Library Sounds''. Retrieved from https://sounds.bl.uk/Oral-history/Science/021M-C1379X0008XX-0001V0.] He served as the Emeritus Royal Society Research Professor of Zoology at the
University of Cambridge
, mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts.
Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge.
, established =
, other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...
. Hinde is best known for his ethological contributions to the fields of
animal behaviour
Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions, and viewing behaviour as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. Behaviourism as a term also describes the scientific and objectiv ...
and
developmental psychology
Developmental psychology is the science, scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult deve ...
.
Early life
Hinde was born in
Norwich
Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the See of Norwich, with ...
, the county town of Norfolk,
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, on 26 October 1923, to Ernest and Isabella Hinde.
Ernest was a medical doctor whose family was independently wealthy through the textile trade; although
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
would impact the textile branch of the Hinde family, Ernest's immediate family unit, which included Robert's older siblings John and Isobel, would remain well-off due to his medical degree.
The family had a keen interest in the natural sciences that included long mountainous hikes, which allowed Hinde to develop an interest in birdwatching.
At 14, Hinde attended
Oundle School
Oundle School is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) for pupils 11–18 situated in the market town of Oundle in Northamptonshire, England. The school has been governed by the Worshipful Company of Grocers of the City ...
, an all-boys boarding school in the market town of
Oundle
Oundle () is a market town on the left bank of the River Nene in North Northamptonshire, England, which had a population of 5,735 at the time of the United Kingdom Census 2011, 2011 census. It is north of London and south-west of Peterborough ...
in
Northamptonshire
Northamptonshire (; abbreviated Northants.) is a county in the East Midlands of England. In 2015, it had a population of 723,000. The county is administered by
two unitary authorities: North Northamptonshire and West Northamptonshire. It is ...
. At Oundle, Hinde was encouraged out of the
natural science
Natural science is one of the branches of science concerned with the description, understanding and prediction of natural phenomena, based on empirical evidence from observation and experimentation. Mechanisms such as peer review and repeatab ...
s and into the "harder sciences", such as chemistry.
Although he would return to the natural sciences, Hinde would later credit this formal training in the
physical sciences
Physical science is a branch of natural science that studies non-living systems, in contrast to life science. It in turn has many branches, each referred to as a "physical science", together called the "physical sciences".
Definition
Phy ...
for shaping the way that he approached his career in zoology, ethology, and psychology.
Military service
Hinde joined the
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...
in 1940 at the age of 17, one year after England declared war on Germany.
He had been in the Officers’ Training Corp while at Oundle, and when he was called up in the RAF, Hinde was sent to the Air Crew Receiving Centre in
St. John's Wood
St John's Wood is a district in the City of Westminster, London, lying 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Traditionally the northern part of the ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone, it extends east to west from ...
. While at St. John's Wood, Hinde received word that his brother, John, had been torpedoed off the coast of Africa.
Hinde would remain in the RAF for 6 years, rising to the rank of Flight Lieutenant before being given an early release in 1946 for a special exhibition at
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch Lady Margaret Beaufort. In constitutional terms, the college is a charitable corpo ...
.
Throughout his life, Hinde was a staunch defender of peace. During his military service, Hinde viewed war as an unfortunate necessity. However, after the end of World War II, Hinde slowly concluded that the "preciousness of peace" was far more important than wartime victory.
Through the rest of his life and his career, Hinde was active in a number of war-avoidant groups, including the
Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs;
the group sought to avoid violent conflict by working behind-the-scenes to provide policymakers with relevant accurate scientific information. Specifically, Hinde emphasized the need to distinguish various levels of aggression, from individual conflict to group conflict to world war.
Education
Upon leaving the RAF in 1946, Hinde enrolled as an undergraduate at St. John's College, and read chemistry, physiology, and zoology.
He received a first in Part II zoology in 1948.
While at St. John's, Hinde also served as the secretary for the Cambridge Bird Club; with the help of the
British Trust for Ornithology
The British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) is an organisation founded in 1932 for the study of birds in the British Isles. The Prince of Wales has been patron since October 2020.
History
Beginnings
In 1931 Max Nicholson wrote:
In the United State ...
, Hinde was able to publish several papers on the behavior of several species of birds during this time. One such paper, in which he carefully recorded species of tits opening milk jugs left outside, remains a seminal work in
social learning.
Hinde would later describe interactions with a young
David Attenborough
Sir David Frederick Attenborough (; born 8 May 1926) is an English broadcaster, biologist, natural historian and author. He is best known for writing and presenting, in conjunction with the BBC Natural History Unit, the nine natural histor ...
in which they would help each other with dissections.
In his last year at St. John's, Hinde also met his first wife, Hester, with whom he would have 4 children.
In 1948, Hinde accepted a position at
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...
, studying under
David Lack. Although Lack had envisioned Hinde's research to focus on the feeding ecology of
jackdaws
Jackdaws are two species of bird in the genus ''Coloeus'' closely related to, but generally smaller than, the crows and ravens ('' Corvus''). ''Coloeus'' is sometimes treated as a subgenus of '' Corvus'', including by the IUCN.Madge & Burn (1994 ...
and
rooks, Hinde convinced him to change the research program to pursue study of the
great tit.
While Lack was Hinde's official supervisor, and "was enormously helpful in teaching
inde
Indian English (IE) is a group of English dialects spoken in the republic of India and among the Indian diaspora. English is used by the Indian government for communication, along with Hindi, as enshrined in the Constitution of India. E ...
to be critical and describe selectively and write concisely",
Hinde credited the most major influence on his later work to
Niko Tinbergen, who arrived at Oxford in 1950. Tinbergen was on the cusp of becoming a seminal figure in the field of ethology and behavior with his "four ‘why’s’ of behavior", and this allowed Hinde to learn the ethological methods early on and apply them to the rest of his career. Hinde received a
D.Phil
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in 1950; his thesis focused on the annual cycle and behavior of the great tit, and on comparing it to other members of the
family ''
Paridae''. The thesis marked the first systematic observation and description of the annual behavior of the species.
Academic career
Cambridge and Madingley Field Station
After receiving his D.Phil., Hinde accepted a position from
W.H. Thorpe
William Homan Thorpe FRS (1 April 1902 – 7 April 1986) was Professor of Animal Ethology at the University of Cambridge, and a significant British zoologist, ethologist and ornithologist.Alan Costall, ‘Thorpe, William Homan (1902–1986)’ ...
that involved being the curator of a field station location in the village of
Madingley.
Although the position included a condition that Hinde was not to carry out his own independent research, both Thorpe and Hinde ignored this stipulation. Hinde carried out a variety of research projects in avian species, in the areas of comparative ethology,
imprinting, motivation and
habituation, and
canary nest-building behavior.
The nest-building study was particularly interesting, with its interdisciplinary approach that incorporated not only ethological methods, but
endocrinological
The endocrine system is a messenger system comprising feedback loops of the hormones released by internal glands of an organism directly into the circulatory system, regulating distant target organs. In vertebrates, the hypothalamus is the neur ...
ones as well, by incorporating a study of
hormonal influence on nest-building.
During his time at Madingley, Hinde developed a collaborative friendship with renowned developmental psychologist
John Bowlby.
Bowlby was intrigued by the concept of using strict ethological approaches in his observations of children; to that point, developmental psychology had been heavily focused on
psychoanalysis and
learning theories
Learning theory describes how students receive, process, and retain knowledge during learning. Cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences, as well as prior experience, all play a part in how understanding, or a world view, is acquired or ...
of mother-infant attachment. Bowlby, through Hinde's ethological influence, developed a socio-emotive attachment theory for which he would later become known. The introduction of strict, objective observational data collection would become a staple of developmental psychology methods. On Hinde's side, the friendship with Bowlby introduced him to psychological theories and ideas about the influence that relationships among individuals can have on observed behavior. Hinde, at Bowlby's invitation, attended a recurring seminar that included psychologists of various fields, exposing him to many ideas of learning theory and analysis.
Primates
Rhesus macaque colony at Madingley
Hinde's interest in mother-infant interactions led to a collaboration with Bowlby to set up a
rhesus macaque colony at Madingley.
The two agreed that monkey mothers and their offspring would be an acceptable analogue for human mother-infant interactions, and would allow for experimental work to be conducted. In 1958, a building and large outdoor pens were built for six groups of rhesus macaques; four years later, a permanent laboratory space was built.
Initial studies at the site focused on documenting the behavior and facial expressions of the macaques, which would aid in individual identification.
For this purpose, "check sheets" were developed to record behavior at half minute intervals. This type of observational data collection would become a staple method of ethological and behavioral studies, and continues to be used today. Using this type of data collection, Hinde and his colleagues were able to quantitatively record interactions between individuals as well as proximities between individuals, leading to the ability to calculate rates of behaviors as a measurement of the quality of relationship.
Hinde and his colleagues also conducted empirical research in the form of separation studies in which mothers were separated from infants in the presence or absence of their larger social group. Such separation studies highlighted the importance of large social contexts and relationships for Hinde; each interaction takes place in the context of prior interactions, so the enduring relationship between individuals is key to understanding behavior.
Hinde's careful quantitative ethological approach allowed observers to use their repeated observations to understand the larger social structure of the macaque groups and the relationships that constituted that structure.
Field studies
Hinde's experience working with primates at Madingley led to him being heavily involved in the founding of several field sites for the study of
great apes in Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. He worked with
Louis Leakey
Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (7 August 1903 – 1 October 1972) was a Kenyan-British palaeoanthropologist and archaeologist whose work was important in demonstrating that humans evolved in Africa, particularly through discoveries made at Olduvai ...
, the founder of many of the sites, and trained many of the young researchers that would become some of the best-known primatologists.
For example, Leakey wanted to get formal scientific training for
Jane Goodall, who had been working at the site for some years but lacked a
bachelor's degree.
Hinde agreed to take her on as a PhD student and to handle the bureaucratic issues that would arise from pursuing a Ph.D. without a bachelor's degree
[Goodall, J. (2017). ''Remembering My Mentor: Robert Hinde''. nlineJane Goodall's Good for All News. Available at: http://news.janegoodall.org/2017/01/20/remembering-my-mentor-robert-hinde/ ccessed 20 Feb. 2019] but was initially her "sternest critic until he came to Gombe". Hinde would visit the site at
Gombe several times and would be integral to the introduction of his quantitative recording methods at the site.
His work would make the data collected by Goodall and colleagues more objective and more comparable across multiple observers at different time periods; this allowed for the longitudinal data collection that was a hallmark of the site.
Hinde also trained
Dian Fossey, who studied
mountain gorillas at the
Virunga field site; Fossey came to Madingley to become Hinde's student before returning to
Rwanda
Rwanda (; rw, u Rwanda ), officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a landlocked country in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa, where the African Great Lakes region and Southeast Africa converge. Located a few degrees south of the Equator ...
.
Fossey's work would provide a detailed account of the social behavior and ecology of the gorillas, and she would go on to found the
Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International to support and drive the conservation of gorilla species.
Hinde would collaborate with and train other
primatologists working in a variety of species, including
Anne Pusey,
Richard Wrangham, Sandy Harcourt, Kelly Stewart,
Robert Seyfarth, and
Dorothy Cheney
Dorothy "Dodo" May Sutton Bundy Cheney (September 1, 1916 – November 23, 2014) was an American tennis player from her youth into her 90s. In 1938, Bundy was the first American to win the women's singles title at the Australian National Champi ...
, among many others.
Hinde's supervising emphasized the objective ethological data collection methods that he had popularized in the field through his work with the rhesus macaques at Madingley.
Child development and developmental psychology
During the 1970s and 1980s, Hinde was also involved in studies of human-mother interaction; he had developed a "
dialectic
Dialectic ( grc-gre, διαλεκτική, ''dialektikḗ''; related to dialogue; german: Dialektik), also known as the dialectical method, is a discourse between two or more people holding different points of view about a subject but wishing ...
al" framework of attachment using a blend of ethology's objective observation and Bowlby's focus on relationship quality. Hinde, along with his second wife, Joan Stephenson-Hinde, conducted research using at-home questionnaires along with playgroup ethological observations to compare an individual child's interactions with his mother and the child's behavior during playgroup; they were able to establish consistency in the child's interactions over time.
In addition, the studies established sex differences in the ways that children interacted with their mothers, their teachers, and their peers.
Hinde, with colleagues, also conducted
cross-cultural studies with similar methods in Cambridge and in
Budapest, finding that Hungarian children tended to be more exhibit more masculine features and less feminine features on behavioral measurements.
Psychological and philosophical ideas of religion, relationships, and institutions
Through the 1990s, Hinde found himself becoming more and more drawn to psychological and
philosophical ideas of the mind. Hinde retired from Cambridge in 1994, but continued to write extensively on ideas of religion and
morality.
One of his major arguments concerned the components of
religions (for instance, beliefs, ritual, values, and sociality) and whether the nature of these components could be understood using traditional biological principles. Hinde's own views were summarized when he said, "‘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 hypothesized about the evolution of pro-social groups, saying that groups in which members behave pro-socially and cooperate are most successful despite the conflict between the self and the group that's introduced by
pro-sociality.
He argued that this conflict was managed by what is commonly called morality.
Major positions held
* 1951–54 – Research fellow,
St. John's College, Cambridge
* 1956–58 – Steward, St. John's College
* 1958–63 – Tutor, St. John's College
* 1958–89; 1994–2016 – Fellow, St. John's College
* 1989–94 – Master, St. John's College, Cambridge
* 1950–58 – Curator, Ornithological Field Station, later named Sub–Department of Animal Behaviour, Department of Zoology, Cambridge
* 1958–63 – Assistant director of research, Sub–Department of Animal Behaviour
* 1963–89 –
Royal Society Research Professor
* 1970–89 – Honorary director, Medical Research Council Unit on the Development & Integration of Behaviour
* 1979 – Hitchcock Professor,
University of California, Berkeley
* 1983 – Green Visiting Scholar,
University of Texas
* 2002–07 – Chair,
British Pugwash Group. (later, president)
* 2008–16 – President, Movement for the Abolition of War
Major lifetime awards
Fellowships
* 1974 –
Fellow of the Royal Society
* 1974 – Foreign Honorary Member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
* 1978 – Honorary Foreign Associate of the
US National Academy of Sciences
* 1986 – Honorary Fellow of
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...
* 1988 –
Commander of the British Empire
* 1990 – Member of the
Academia Europaea
* 1990 – Honorary Fellow of
Trinity College, Dublin
, name_Latin = Collegium Sanctae et Individuae Trinitatis Reginae Elizabethae juxta Dublin
, motto = ''Perpetuis futuris temporibus duraturam'' (Latin)
, motto_lang = la
, motto_English = It will last i ...
* 1990 –
Croonian Lecturer of the Royal Society
* 1996 –
Royal Medal
The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal and The King's Medal (depending on the gender of the monarch at the time of the award), is a silver-gilt medal, of which three are awarded each year by the Royal Society, two for "the most important ...
, Royal Society
* 2002 – Honorary Fellow of the
British Academy
Awards
''Primatology''
* 1980 – Osman Hill Medal, Primate Society of Great Britain
''Psychology''
* 1980 – Wilhelm Wundt Medal, Leipzig
''Ethology''
* 1981 – Honorary Fellow of the
British Psychological Society
The British Psychological Society (BPS) is a representative body for psychologists and psychology in the United Kingdom.
History
It was founded on 24 October 1901 at University College London (UCL) as ''The Psychological Society'', the organ ...
* 1991 – Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award,
Society for Research in Child Development
* 1993 – G. Stanley Hall Medal,
American Psychological Association
* 2003 – Bowlby–Ainsworth Award for Contributions to Attachment Theory and Research
* 2012 – Honorary Member of the Society for Emotion and Attachment Studies
''Social psychology''
* 1992 – Distinguished Career Award, International Society for the Study of Interpersonal Relationships
''Psychiatry''
* 1980 – Leonard Cammer Award,
New York Psychiatric Institute
The New York State Psychiatric Institute, located at the Columbia University Irving Medical Center in the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City, was established in 1895 as one of the first institutions in the United States t ...
,
Columbia University
* 1987 – Albert Einstein Award for Psychiatry, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York
* 1988 – Honorary Fellow of the
Royal College of Psychiatry
The Royal College of Psychiatrists is the main professional organisation of psychiatrists in the United Kingdom, and is responsible for representing psychiatrists, for psychiatric research and for providing public information about mental health ...
''Anthropology''
* 1984 – Rivers Award in Social Anthropology, Cambridge University
* 1990 – Huxley Medal,
Royal Anthropological Institute
The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...
''Zoology''
* 1991 –
Frink Medal for British Zoologists,
Zoological Society of London
Death
Hinde died on 23 December 2016, at the age of 93. He was survived by his second wife, Joan Stevenson-Hinde, his six children, eighteen grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.
References
External links
Interviewed by Alan Macfarlane 7 and 20 November 2007 (video)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hinde, Robert
1923 births
2016 deaths
English zoologists
English humanists
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
Fellows of the Royal Society
Honorary Fellows of the British Academy
Honorary Fellows of Trinity College Dublin
Royal Medal winners
Masters of St John's College, Cambridge
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Royal Air Force personnel of World War II
Royal Air Force officers