Do monkeys have humor? Study shows great apes playfully tease each other

Babies playfully tease others as young as eight months old. Since language is not required for this behavior, similar types of playful teasing might be present in nonhuman animals.

Now cognitive biologists and primatologists from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA, USA), the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB, Germany), Indiana University (IU, USA (USA) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD, USA) documented playful teasing in four species of great apes.

Like joking behavior in humans, monkey teasing is provocative, persistent, and includes elements of surprise and play. Given that all four great ape species used playful teasing, it is likely that the prerequisites for joking humor evolved in the human lineage at least 13 million years ago.

Joking is an important element of human interaction that draws on social intelligence, the ability to anticipate future actions, and the ability to recognize and appreciate the violation of others’ expectations. Teasing has much in common with joking, and playful teasing can be seen as a cognitive precursor to joking.

The first forms of playful teasing in humans appear before babies even utter their first words, as early as eight months old. The first forms of teasing are repetitive provocations often involving surprise. Infants tease their parents by playfully offering and taking away objects, violating social rules (called provocative noncompliance), and disrupting the activities of others.

In a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society Bscientists from the University of California, Los Angeles, the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Indiana University, and the University of California, San Diego (Isabelle Laumer, Sasha Winkler, Federico Rossano, and Erica Cartmill) report evidence of playful teasing in all four species of great apes: orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas.

“Great apes are excellent candidates for playful teasing because they are closely related to us, participate in social play, demonstrate laughter, and display a relatively sophisticated understanding of the expectations of others,” says Isabelle Laumer (UCLA/ MPI-AB), postdoctoral researcher. researcher and first author of the study.

The team analyzed spontaneous social interactions that seemed playful, mildly harassing, or provocative. During these interactions, researchers observed the tease’s actions, body movements, facial expressions, and how the targets of the teasing responded in turn. They also assessed the intentionality of the teaser by looking for evidence that the behavior was directed toward a specific target, that it persisted or escalated, and that the teasers expected a response from the target.

Researchers found that orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas all engaged in intentionally provocative behavior, often accompanied by playful characteristics. They identified 18 distinct teasing behaviors. Many of these behaviors appeared to be used to provoke a response, or at least to get the target’s attention.

“It was common for teasers to repeatedly wave or swing a body part or object into the middle of the target’s field of vision, hit or push them, stare intently at their face, disrupt their movements, pull on their hair or engaged in other behaviors that were extremely difficult for the target to ignore,” says UCLA and IU professor Erica Cartmill, lead author of the study.

Although playful teasing takes many forms, the authors note that it differs from play in several ways. “Playful teasing in great apes is one-sided, largely coming from teasing, often throughout the interaction, and rarely reciprocated,” says Cartmill.

“Animals also rarely use play signals like the primates’ ‘play face,’ which is similar to what we would call a smile, or ‘hold’ gestures that signal their intention to play.”

Playful teasing occurred primarily when the monkeys were relaxed and shared similarities with the behaviors of humans. “Similar to teasing in children, playful monkey teasing involves one-sided provocation, an expectation of response in which the teaser looks directly at the target’s face after teasing action, repetition, and elements of surprise,” says Laumer.

The researchers noted that Jane Goodall and other field primatologists had mentioned similar behaviors in chimpanzees many years ago, but this new study was the first to systematically investigate playful teasing.

“From an evolutionary perspective, the presence of playful teasing in the four great apes and its similarities to playful teasing and joking in human infants suggests that playful teasing and its cognitive prerequisites may have been present in our last ancestor common, at least 13 million years ago,” says Laumer.

“We hope that our study will inspire other researchers to study playful teasing in more species to better understand the evolution of this multifaceted behavior. We also hope that this study will raise awareness of the similarities we share with our closest relatives and It is important to protect these endangered animals.”