Reassuring touch kept the peace six million years before humans evolved – new research

By Jake Brooker, Research Associate in the Department of Biology, Utrecht University
Zanna Clay, Professor in the Department of Psychology, Durham University

During an eight-month-long research trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia, we studied consolation: the way bonobos and chimpanzees comfort each other after conflicts and distress. But early on, we kept noticing something that didn’t quite fit.

The animals were exchanging a lot of friendly physical contact, embracing, touching and kissing, in competitive situations before any clear conflict or distress signals had broken out. We…

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