Stress reduction through consolation in chimpanzees

Abstract

Consolation, i.e., postconflict affiliative interaction directed from a third party to the recipient of aggression, is assumed to have a stress-alleviating function. This function, however, has never been demonstrated. This study shows that consolation in chimpanzees reduces behavioral measures of stress in recipients of aggression. Furthermore, consolation was more likely to occur in the absence of reconciliation, i.e., postconflict affiliative interaction between former opponents. Consolation therefore may act as an alternative to reconciliation when the latter does not occur. In the debate about empathy in great apes, evidence for the stress-alleviating function of consolation in chimpanzees provides support for the argument that consolation could be critical behavior. Consistent with the argument that relationship quality affects their empathic responses, we found that consolation was more likely between individuals with more valuable relationships. Chimpanzees may thus respond to distressed valuable partners by consoling them, thereby reducing their stress levels, especially in the absence of reconciliation.empathy ͉ Pan troglodytes ͉ postconflict behavior ͉ social relationships

Development of socio-emotional competence in bonobos

“…We extracted four behavioral measures from the sociality focals and affinity scans thought to relate to social competence (and to interrelate to ER) in children: (i) mean length of each play episode, a putative marker of attention for sustained social interaction/attention (2); (ii) rate of initiated play episodes; a new episode began if play had ceased for more than 10 s [well-regulating children are bolder and engage in more social interactions (45)]; (iii) mean amount of play in seconds per hour; and (iv) mean number of closely bonded partners per juvenile, based on dyadic scores in the affinity scans within the upper range above the group median, excluding relations with their own mother. During the social competence focals, we also collected data on the mean rate of self-scratching per minute, a behavioral index of anxiety in primates (13,14), which we used as a marker of baseline ER. Composite sociality index.…”

“…Consolation is defined as spontaneous contact comfort aimed at distressed parties by means of touching, stroking, embracing, and kissing (15) (Fig. 1), a behavior well-known of both children and apes (4)(5)(6)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16). In human children, consolation behavior appears already in the first year of life (10,17), suggesting that although the cognitive component of empathy increases across development, it is no prerequisite for expressions of concern.…”

“…This is curious, because if it is critically important for humans one would expect it to also apply to some degree to our closest relatives, the anthropoid apes. To explore this issue, we measured purported markers of socio-emotional competence in young bonobos along with consolation behavior, which previous research has suggested to be a marker of sympathetic concern (12)(13)(14). Consolation is defined as spontaneous contact comfort aimed at distressed parties by means of touching, stroking, embracing, and kissing (15) (Fig.…”

Why are bystanders friendly to recipients of aggression?

“…Moreover, when bystander affiliation was shown to have a self-protective function, it was unlikely to be provided by kin, 66 whereas, in another group of chimpanzees, bystander affiliation with a stress-reducing function was offered by valuable partners. 54 The social constraints hypothesis 34 predicts, as an alternative to the cognitive constraints hypothesis, that inter-species differences in the occurrence of bystander affiliation are due to the differential risk of aggression for potential bystanders on approaching the original recipient of aggression. Following this hypothesis, bystander affiliation is more likely to occur in species with more tolerant social systems, where the risks of further aggression involving the recipient are lower.…”

Prosocial deficits in behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia relate to reward network atrophy

“…In non‐human animals, prosociality is assessed by measuring other‐focused affiliative actions including consolation, targeted helping, cooperation, and giving (Boesch, 1994; de Waal, Leimgruber, & Greenberg, 2008; Fraser & Bugnyar, 2010; Kuczaj et al., 2015; Palagi, Paoli, & Tarli, 2004; Plotnik, Lair, Suphachoksahakun, & de Waal, 2011; Warneken, Hare, Melis, Hanus, & Tomasello, 2007). Elephants and chimpanzees use physical contact to console kin who are injured or ill, and some primates and rats give food to conspecifics when they could choose to feed only themselves (Ben‐Ami Bartal, Decety, & Mason, 2011; Burkart, Fehr, Efferson, & van Schaik, 2007; Douglas‐Hamilton, Bhalla, Wittemyer, & Vollrath, 2006; Fraser, Stahl, & Aureli, 2008; Koski & Sterck, 2009; Plotnik & de Waal, 2014). These species engage in prosocial behaviors, therefore, because they are inherently rewarding and not because they result in personal material gain (de Waal, 2007; de Waal et al., 2008; Horner, Carter, Suchak, & de Waal, 2011; Zaki & Mitchell, 2013).…”