Anthropology

Poking and prodding to provoke a response – behaviour common in human children (and some adults) – were among the behaviours exhibited by the primate pranksters.

Tom Howarth

Published: February 14, 2024 at 8:20 am

Have you ever tapped someone on the far shoulder just to watch them spin around in the wrong direction and then proceeded to do it again moments later? Why is this funny? You might think that finding something like this amusing is an innately human characteristic, with complex communication and context needed for a gag to land, but you’d be wrong.

Fresh research published today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B has found evidence of monkey business (sorry) in four species of great apes, shedding light on the evolutionary origins of humour.

The findings suggest playful teasing, an interaction exhibited by human children as young as eight months old, may have deeper roots in our primate relatives than previously thought.

Such behaviours involve deliberately violating others’ expectations; for example, by repeatedly offering and withdrawing objects or intentionally, and with an element of surprise, disrupting others’ activities.

To uncover these behaviours, the team observed spontaneous social interactions among populations of orangutans, chimpanzees, bonobos and gorillas. They analysed everything from the body movements and facial expressions of the teaser to how the targets of the teasing (the teasee?) responded in turn.