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Bonobos tend to behave optimistically after hearing laughter.

Sasha L Winkler1,2, Isabelle B Laumer3, Heidi Lyn4

  • 1Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. sashawinkler@g.ucla.edu.

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Bonobos exposed to laughter vocalizations showed a positive emotional bias, expecting better outcomes. This suggests laughter influences decision-making and anticipation in apes, similar to humans.

Keywords:
AffectApeBonoboCognitionLaughterOptimism bias

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Area of Science:

  • Primate cognition
  • Animal behavior
  • Affective science

Background:

  • Emotions significantly influence cognitive functions like memory and decision-making.
  • Research on animal emotions has predominantly focused on negative emotions like fear.
  • Positive emotions and their cognitive impacts in non-human animals remain less explored.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate if positive affect vocalizations in bonobos lead to expectations of positive future outcomes.
  • To assess the impact of conspecific laughter on bonobo decision-making using a cognitive bias task.

Main Methods:

  • A cognitive bias test was employed with four bonobos.
  • Subjects were trained to differentiate between rewarded and unrewarded stimuli.
  • Ambiguous stimuli were presented after priming with bonobo laughter.

Main Results:

  • Bonobos were more likely to approach ambiguous stimuli following exposure to laughter.
  • This suggests that laughter primes positive emotional states and biases decision-making towards positive expectations.
  • The findings indicate that laughter influences foraging and search behaviors in bonobos.

Conclusions:

  • Hearing laughter induces positive emotions and biases decision-making in bonobos.
  • This highlights a shared role of positive emotion in behavior and cognition across species.
  • Contagious play vocalizations in other animals may also signal positive outcomes, suggesting evolutionary commonalities.