Abstract
Human joint action seems special, as it is grounded in joint commitment—a sense of mutual obligation participants feel towards each other. Comparative research with humans and non-human great apes has typically investigated joint commitment by experimentally interrupting joint actions to study subjects’ resumption strategies. However, such experimental interruptions are human-induced, and thus the question remains of how great apes naturally handle interruptions. Here, we focus on naturally occurring interruptions of joint actions, grooming and play, in bonobos and chimpanzees. Similar to humans, both species frequently resumed interrupted joint actions (and the previous behaviours, like grooming the same body part region or playing the same play type) with their previous partners and at the previous location. Yet, the probability of resumption attempts was unaffected by social bonds or rank. Our data suggest that great apes experience something akin to joint commitment, for which we discuss possible evolutionary origins.
Highlights
When humans interact with each other, they experience a sense of obligation towards their partners, a joint commitment [1,2]
We showed that [34] communication to initiate and terminate joint action in bonobos is affected by social bond, again in line with the pattern predicted by politeness theory [28], and that this pattern was not evident in chimpanzees
We investigated whether joint commitment may underlie joint actions in chimpanzees and bonobos by looking at whether pairs of conspecifics resumed spontaneous, naturally occurring joint actions when they were interrupted by natural causes, rather than artificially instigated ones
Summary
When humans interact with each other, they experience a sense of obligation towards their partners, a joint commitment [1,2]. Humans monitor each other during interaction and respond to or sanction partners who renege on joint 2 commitments [6]. Individuals wishing to interrupt a joint action typically justify the necessity of the interruption, whereas those being interrupted unexpectedly often protest and attempt to re-engage partners [8,9,12,13,14,15]. Participants’ protests or attempts to re-engage their partners to the joint action are interpreted as evidence for joint commitment [8,9,12]
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