Discoveries

March 12, 2024

Joking Around

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Human children love to playfully poke grown-ups, often their parents, until they elicit a reaction.

So do apes, the Washington Post reported.

In a landmark study, researchers found that humans’ distant cousins like to tease each other.

This conclusion provides scientific backing to first-hand observations reported by researchers for years, including from primatologist Jane Goodall, who witnessed chimpanzees playfully annoying their family and friends going about their business.

To show this human-ape link, a team of researchers watched herds of four great ape species – orangutan, chimpanzee, bonobo, and gorilla – at the San Diego and Leipzig zoos for 75 hours. They systemically analyzed spontaneous interactions by juveniles that could be playful or provocative at first glance, by paying close attention to the animals’ actions, movements, and facial expressions.

They found more than a dozen types of teasing, with some also being observed among humans, such as poking, slamming, or pulling – and sometimes even pulling off surprising pranks.

The scientists noted that the teasing apes would look for a response from their target. In the absence thereof, they would resume or even escalate the teasing. For instance, little Aisha the orangutan was seen swinging a hanging rope that brushed the top of her father’s head. When he failed to react after several attempts, she finally swung herself on the rope to bump him.

The targets’ neutral or positive reaction to the teasing helped the researchers understand the behavior was good-natured. Others also opined that it was a way for the young to learn how to behave in a social setting and understand hierarchies.

Though different styles of teasing are not thought to stem from genetics, humans probably share cognitive functions with apes in order to understand humor. These may date back to our common ancestor 13 million years ago.

This story originally appeared in the March 12, 2024 newsletter, The Masterful Player.