Chimps need hugs and kisses too!!

Researchers studying people’s closest genetic relatives found that stress was reduced in chimps that were victims of aggression if a third chimp stepped in to offer consolation. HOLD AND BEHOLD, the chimps do not differ from us when it comes to providing emotional and moral support. According to Dr. Orlaith N. Fraser of the Research Center in Evolutionary Anthropology and Paleoecology at Liverpool John Moores University in England, “Consolation usually took the form of a kiss or embrace,”This is a very interesting finding as it has been noted through intense observations that, this behavior is rarely seen other than after a conflict. “If a kiss was used, the consoler would press his or her open mouth against the recipient’s body, usually on the top of the head or their back. An embrace consisted of the consoler wrapping one or both arms around the recipient.”

This study removes doubt that consolation really does what the term suggests: provide relief to distressed parties after conflict. The evidence is compelling and makes it likely that consolation behavior is an expression of empathy,” de Waal said. De Waal suggested that this evidence of empathy in apes is “perhaps equivalent to what in human children is called ’sympathetic concern.’” The INTERESTING BIT is that the  behavior in children which  includes touching and hugging of distressed family members and “is in fact identical to that of apes, and so the comparison is not far-fetched,” he said. Another interesting finding is that while chimps show this empathy, monkeys do not.  The reason? LOOK BELOW!!

It comes as no surprise that chimps exhibit behaviors common among humans. With such genetic similarity, it stands to reason they at least have the potential for such behaviors.  HOWEVER,The only question is – with so much close-proximity interaction between humans and apes across the centuries, do the apes originate this behavior all on their own or has it been assimilated by observing such behavior among humans? Either way, I have no doubt the chimps do so, not out of mimicry alone, but due to genuine emotional need. Such interactions apparently serve an important socially homeostatic function (Waal, 1978) terms them reconciliation (i.e. contact between former opponents) and consolation (i.e. contact of the aggressed party with a third animal). According to ths data, kissing is characteristic of reconciliation and embracing of consolation.

OR.. it could be purely communication!

Body contact is of utmost importance in maintaining social harmony in a chimpanzee community.When the fighting is over, the loser will approach the winner and weep, crouch humbly, or hold out its hand. The victor usually responds by gently touching, stroking, embracing, or grooming the defeated chimp.  Chimpanzees will often groom each other for hours.Chimpanzees use a multitude of calls to communicate. After being separated, chimpanzees often embrace, kiss, touch, stroke, or hold hands with each other.(Roman& Christphe, 2005)

What do we learn from this? Well, be it for consoling purposes or purely as a mean of communication, the chimpanzees are presenting themselves as good models in terms of showing affection and sympathy and this is something human beings can start learning from.

REFERENCES

Orlaith N. Fraser , Filippo Aureli (2008), Reconciliation, consolation and postconflict behavioral specificity in chimpanzees, American Journal of Primatology, Volume 70 (12), P:1114 – 1123

Roman M. Wittig & Christophe Boesch, (2005), How to Repair Relationships – Reconciliation in Wild Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), Ethology, Volume 111(8), P: 736 – 763

Chimpanzee Cultures, Edited with Richard Wrangham, W.C. McGrew, and Paul Heltne. Foreword by Jane Goodall. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994. ISBN 0-674-11662-3.

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