Updated

Updated · bbc.co.uk · Jul 21

Durham Study Finds Great Apes Use Touch Before Food Conflicts, Tracing Trust Back 7 Million Years

Updated

Updated · bbc.co.uk · Jul 21

Durham Study Finds Great Apes Use Touch Before Food Conflicts, Tracing Trust Back 7 Million Years

Q: Is an ape's reassuring touch a selfless act of teamwork or a calculated strategy for food?

It appears to be both, but not in a cold, calculated sense: the evidence points to reassuring touch as an evolved social tool that builds trust and also improves access to food. The Durham University study found that chimpanzees and bonobos that touched, embraced or kissed before a tense feeding event were more likely to get food and to co-feed peacefully. That makes the behavior functional. It reduces tension, signals tolerance and helps individuals navigate competition with less conflict. In that sense, it has a practical payoff. But the same findings do not support the idea that apes are simply manipulating one another for peanuts. Researchers frame the behavior as a “rallying cry” that creates a sense of shared purpose, much like a human team huddle. The strongest effects appeared in socially important pairings, such as bonobo female-female bonds and chimpanzee male-male bonds, and in more tolerant groups. Other ape research also shows touch is tied to empathy, consolation and long-term relationship maintenance. So the best reading is that reassuring touch is cooperative behavior shaped by evolution because it works. It is not purely selfless in the human moral sense, and not merely a short-term trick for food either. It is a deeply social behavior that helps apes manage stress, preserve alliances and gain practical benefits, including safer, calmer feeding. In evolutionary terms, teamwork and self-interest are not opposites here; they reinforce each other.

3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Jul 21

Chimpanzees and bonobos that hugged, touched or kissed in the five minutes before peanuts arrived were more likely to share access to food peacefully, Durham University researchers reported.
The team observed apes at sanctuaries in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia, using peanut-based feeding tests to mimic the tension and competition that precede natural foraging.
More tolerant groups showed higher levels of reassuring contact, including "reassurance trains" in which several apes embraced in succession; chimpanzees also displayed unexpectedly intimate gestures such as putting fingers in one another's mouths.
Researchers said the behavior suggests touch is an ancient trust-building tool that predates language and may date back at least 7 million years to a common ancestor of humans, chimpanzees and bonobos.