When we’re talking to another person, we probably wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye; that would just be impolite. Apes seem to do something similar, researchers report in a study publishing August 11 in the journal iScience, in which they documented apes purposefully using signals to start and then end interactions – a behavior not seen outside of the human species until now.
They also found that the social and power dynamics between the interacting apes affected the communication efforts used, which the researchers say mirrors patterns similar to human politeness.
“We were able to launch rockets and land on the moon because we have the ability to share our intentions, which allows us to achieve things so much bigger than a single individual can achieve alone. This ability has been suggested to be at the heart of human nature,” says Raphaela Heesen, a postdoctoral researcher at Durham University in the United Kingdom. [Read more…] about Like humans, apes communicate to start and end social interactions