Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • RESEARCH HIGHLIGHT

Bonobo apes pout and throw tantrums — and gain sympathy

Primates that showed infantile behaviour after losing in a conflict drew consolation from their companions.
A bonobo embraces another distressed bonobo

A bonobo (right) at a sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo consoles a distressed group mate (left) making a ‘pout’ face after a fight. Credit: Zanna Clay/Lola ya Bonobo Sanctuary

Sometimes people struggle to hide their emotions, blinking back tears, for example. But we also display emotion strategically, letting the tears flow when we want consolation or reconciliation with an erstwhile enemy. Raphaela Heesen and her colleagues at Durham University, UK, report that chimpanzee-like apes called bonobos might also voluntarily control their emotional expressions1.

Access options

Buy article

Get time limited or full article access on ReadCube.

$32.00

Buy

All prices are NET prices.

Nature 608, 452 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-02135-7

References

  1. Heesen, R., Austry, D. A., Upton, Z. & Clay, Z. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B 377, 20210310 (2022).

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Subjects

Latest on:

Nature Careers

Jobs

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing

Search

Advanced search

Quick links