For most folks, a nice hug and some sympathy can help a bit after we get pushed around. Turns out, chimpanzees use hugs and kisses the same way. And it works.

Researchers studying people's closest genetic relatives found that stress was reduced in chimps that were victims of aggression if a third chimp stepped in to offer consolation.

"Consolation usually took the form of a kiss or embrace," said Dr. Orlaith N. Fraser of the Research Center in Evolutionary Anthropology and Paleoecology at Liverpool John Moores University in England.

"This is particularly interesting," she said, because this behavior is rarely seen other than after a conflict.

"If a kiss was used, the consoler would press his or her open mouth against the recipient's body, usually on the top of the head or their back. An embrace consisted of the consoler wrapping one or both arms around the recipient."

The result was a reduction of stress behavior such as scratching or self-grooming by the victim of aggression, Fraser and colleagues report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Consolation was most likely to occur between chimpanzees who already had valuable relationships, Fraser added.

Dr. Frans de Waal of the Yerkes Primate Center at Emory University in Atlanta said the study is important because it shows the relationship between consolation and stress reduction. Previous researchers have claimed that consolation had no effect on stress, said de Waal.

"This study removes doubt that consolation really does what the term suggests: provide relief to distressed parties after conflict. The evidence is compelling and makes it likely that consolationbehavior is an expression of empathy," de Waal said.

De Waal suggested that this evidence of empathy in apes is "perhaps equivalent to what in human children is called 'sympathetic concern.'"

That behavior in children includes touching and hugging of distressed family members and "is in fact identical to that of apes, and so the comparison is not far-fetched," he said.



对于大多数人来说，受委屈后得到一个拥抱或一些同情会感到一丝安慰。而研究发现，黑猩猩遇到这种情况时也会用拥抱和亲吻来安慰对方。而且的确有用。

研究人员通过研究与人类亲缘关系最近的黑猩猩发现，如果它们在受到伤害后得到另一只黑猩猩的安慰，紧张情绪会减小一些。

英国利物浦约翰•摩尔斯大学进化人类学与古生态学研究中心的奥赖斯•N•弗雷泽博士说："黑猩猩通常用亲吻或拥抱来表达安慰。"

她说："这实在很有趣"，因为这种行为只有在冲突后才会发生。

"用亲吻表示安慰时，表达安慰的黑猩猩会张开嘴靠近对方的身体，通常是头顶或后背。而用拥抱表示安慰时，安慰一方一般会用单臂或双臂环抱对方。"

弗雷泽和同事在本周二的《国家自然科学院学报》中指出，受到攻击的黑猩猩在得到安慰后，抓挠和给自己理毛等体现紧张情绪的行为会减少。

弗雷泽说，这种安慰行为多发生在关系较亲密的黑猩猩之间。

亚特兰大埃默里大学耶克斯灵长类研究中心的弗朗•德•瓦尔博士称，这项研究很重要，因为它揭示了安慰与减压之间的关系。他说，之前的研究都认为安慰对压力没有什么影响。

瓦尔说："该研究中消除了'安慰是否真的能减轻冲突中受害方的压力"这一疑问。这一证据很有说服力，而且还能说明安慰行为可能是感情相通的表现。"

瓦尔称，类人猿中的这一共情现象"可能与儿童的'同情心'差不多"。

他说，儿童表示同情的行为包括触摸和拥抱不开心的家人等，"其实这与类人猿的安慰行为很相似，所以做这一类比并不牵强。"
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