Have you ever wondered why your dog plays keep-away with your socks? Or why your kitten playfully bats at your leg and immediately runs away? That’s what Erica Cartmill wondered when she repeatedly noticed this kind of mischievous playful behavior in the great apes she studied. Her curiosity led to more questions: Why did teasing behavior evolve? And when?
It turns out that playful teasing in great apes serves a similar function in ape communities as it does in human ones. Erica and her colleagues found that great apes use teasing as a means to develop and hone social prediction skills while simultaneously parsing out the boundaries of social norms. Teasing also advertises to others the strength of a relationship. Imagine the difference in telling your best friend versus the cashier at your local grocers that their hair looks like a wombat slept on it. You definitely wouldn’t receive the same reaction! Teasing lets us get to know somebody else’s mind to learn about their goals, intentions, and desires. And as Erica and her colleagues have found, this is not behavior unique to humans. Our human propensity for playful banter and tricks has much deeper roots in other beings and minds.
Erica is excited to extend this research to other species to see how other animals use teasing and wants to inspire others to also take up this research. To that end, you can help Erica and her colleagues collect data about animals playfully teasing humans or other animals by clicking here to share your stories.
You can read the full article here in Scientific American.
Want more details? Check out Erica’s findings!