Gently teasing a loved one for the simple pleasure of laughing about it is a sign of deep complicity.
This behavior can nevertheless sometimes be annoying because it borders on harassment or aggression.
In human beings, in general, children and adults alike know perfectly well when these little apparent provocations are simple games. But are we the only ones who understand this?
Is being a tease a human trait?
Probably not.
Although this behavior requires a very fine level of awareness of self and others, it is clearly not beyond the reach of our closest cousins.
German primatologists from the Max Planck Institute and American primatologists from the University of California and Indiana University have in fact documented numerous
“
playful teasing
”
behaviors in the four most emblematic species of great apes ( bonobo, chimpanzee, orangutan and gorilla).
To do this, they sifted through 75 hours of videos of…
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