MONKEY’s quarrel and reconciliation like humans
For humans, getting involved in an aggressive conflict can be costly, not only because of the risk of injury and stress but also because it can damage precious social relationships between friends–and the same goes for monkeys and apes.
Just like humans, they also form selective long-term, reciprocal bonds that share many parallels with human friendship. And in the primate world, aggression can also be detrimental to these relationships because it decreases tolerance and the rate of friendly interactions.
ALL LIFE ON EARTH IS RELATED
Like human families, for monkeys and apes, the day-to-day business of living in a group inevitably brings quarrels. Disputes could be over who gets the shady spot to rest in, who’s in charge, who to groom, who to mate with, who to huddle up with in the cold or where to feed. Life can be harsh. But luckily, primates have an entire arsenal of strategies up their sleeves to forestall, or mitigate the costs of, aggression.
These range from formal submission and calming tensions before they escalate to mediation and policing interventions during a conflict. But if aggression is unavoidable, and a fight occurs, opponents have another option. Because just like humans, primates can also repair their relationship through reconciliation–to help reestablish friendly contact.
Reconciliatory behavior was first recognized by Frans de Waal in the 1970s in a seminal study of post-conflict behavior in chimpanzees. On the surface, reconciliation boils down to friendly contact between opponents soon after a fight, but it also seems to do more than just end the conflict. Studies have found that reconciliation has emotional consequences in primates, reducing indicators of distress and anxiety–such as elevated heart rate and scratching–back to baseline levels.
Post-conflict anxiety levels in primates have also found to be related to the quality of the relationship between the former opponents. Among humans, this makes perfect sense. If you argue with a close friend, you’re much more stressed than if you’ve argued with a passing acquaintance. Researchers have also found that reconciliation reduces the likelihood of renewed aggression. But perhaps reconciliation appears to restore tolerance and cooperation between friends.
Friendships improve health and increase survival and reproductive success in many species, such as dolphins, horses, birds and primates, so it’s not surprising that mechanisms have evolved to alleviate damage to a relationship caused by aggression. That reconciliation is common to many social species shows how deep-rooted our own tendency is for peace-making. But it would seem that some techniques are actually learned rather than innately acquired.
