Great Apes Use Hugs and Reassuring Touch to Keep the Peace, Study Finds
A study of 116 chimpanzees and bonobos found that physical affection before feeding conflicts led to more peaceful sharing, suggesting the evolutionary roots of human social touch stretch back at least six million years.
For chimpanzees and bonobos, the moments before a meal can be socially tense enough to spark conflict. A new study of 116 semi-wild individuals from both species suggests that physical affection — hugs, touches, and other reassuring gestures — acts as a buffer. Reassuring physical touch before socially-tense events like feeding led to more harmonious co-feeding, with measurably fewer aggressive incidents.
The researchers, based at Durham University, observed feeding events and recorded instances of physical contact in the moments before food was presented. They found that individuals who touched and hugged were significantly more likely to access the food and then eat alongside each other peacefully. The effect held across both species, from the more competitive chimpanzees to the famously conciliatory bonobos.
The gestures observed — embraces, kisses, and light touches on the shoulder or back — are strikingly similar to the ways humans comfort one another. This, the researchers argue, suggests a shared evolutionary origin. The roots of human social touch appear to stretch back at least six million years, to the last common ancestor we share with chimpanzees and bonobos.
The study adds to a growing understanding that physical affection in apes is not just grooming or mating behavior but a deliberate social tool for managing competition. In this case, the touch functioned as a kind of preemptive peacekeeping, reducing the likelihood of conflict before a valued resource arrived and enabling animals to eat together without aggression.
What makes the finding compelling is that it places a familiar human behavior — offering a hug or a reassuring hand — in a deep evolutionary context. It suggests that long before language, our ancestors may have relied on touch to defuse tensions around shared food, a dynamic that still plays out today whenever we offer comfort to someone we care about.