Chimpanzees and Bonobos Offer Comfort Before Stressful Situations, Study Finds

KATHMANDU. New research has shown that chimpanzees and bonobos, considered the closest living relatives of humans, adopt behaviors such as hugging, touching, kissing, and comforting each other before stressful situations. 

According to researchers, such behavior helps increase mutual trust and reduce potential conflict. Researchers from Durham University in the UK studied chimpanzees and bonobos at two large ape conservation centers in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia. During the research, they used peanuts to create situations similar to food competition in a wild environment.

According to the research, within a five-minute period after receiving signals of food, chimpanzees and bonobos showed reassuring behaviors towards each other through touching, hugging, kissing, and other physical contact. The study also showed that members of groups exhibiting such behavior were more likely to sit peacefully together and eat afterwards. 

Lead researcher Professor Janna Kleve of the research team compared the behavior of apes coming closer, hugging, and comforting each other before stressful situations to the 'huddle' formed by team players before a football match. According to her, this behavior helps develop a sense of 'us' over 'me'.

Another interesting aspect of the study was that even chimpanzees, known for their aggressive nature, displayed extremely close behavior towards each other. In some cases, they even showed behaviors reflecting trust and intimacy, such as putting fingers in each other's mouths. Researchers stated that such reassuring physical contact was seen more in more tolerant groups. In some groups, a 'reassurance train' of hugging one after another was also observed, indicating strengthened unity and cooperation within the group.

According to Dr. Jake Brucker, involved in the research, social physical contact may be a medium of communication much older than the development of language.

Although these species diverged from the common ancestor of chimpanzees, bonobos, and humans about 7 million years ago, the study indicates that such behavior used to build trust and cooperation still persists. Researchers have said that behaviors such as hugging teammates before a game, putting a hand on a friend's shoulder, or comforting each other before a stressful situation today may be a continuation of this same social evolutionary process that is millions of years old.