Abstract
Accounts of teasing have a long history in psychological and sociological research, yet teasing itself is vastly underdeveloped as a topic of study. As a phenomenon that moves along the border between aggression and play, teasing presents an opportunity to investigate key foundations of social and mental life. Developmental studies suggest that preverbal human infants already playfully tease their parents by performing ‘the unexpected,’ apparently deliberately violating the recipient's expectations to create a shared humorous experience. Teasing behaviour may be phylogenetically old and perhaps an evolutionary precursor to joking. In this review, we present preliminary evidence suggesting that non-human primates also exhibit playful teasing. In particular, we argue that great apes display three types of playful teasing described in preverbal human infants: teasing with offer and withdrawal, provocative non-compliance and disrupting others' activities. We highlight the potential of this behaviour to provide a window into complex socio-cognitive processes such as attribution of others’ expectations and, finally, we propose directions for future research and call for systematic studies of teasing behaviour in non-human primates.
Highlights
‘You can’t tease other people unless you can correctly guess what is in their minds and make them suffer or laugh because of your knowing.’ – Daniel N
We argue that great apes display three types of playful teasing described in preverbal human infants: teasing with offer and withdrawal, provocative non-compliance and disrupting others’ activities
The occurrence of playful teasing in preverbal human infants indicates that this behaviour does not rely on symbolic language and may be evolutionary old
Summary
‘You can’t tease other people unless you can correctly guess what is in their minds and make them suffer or laugh because of your knowing.’ – Daniel N. Its inherent dichotomy— the mix between aggressive and playful elements—can affect the relationship between teaser and recipient in contrasting ways [3,4,5,6,7,8,9]. If teasing is more playful and humorous, the teasing event may be mutually enjoyable for both teaser and recipient, and potentially lead to greater closeness In contrast with other, more obviously aggressive forms of teasing, playful teasing is highly ambiguous. It most likely involves ‘mind-reading’ skills on both the side of the teaser and the recipient. Playful teasing is noteworthy because of its implications for higher socio-cognitive abilities, as well as its potential relevance to the origins and functions of humour
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