Researchers have discovered that chimpanzees converse with gestures in a rapid back-and-forth manner similar to human conversations. This groundbreaking finding, published on July 22 in the journal Current Biology, comes from the largest dataset ever collected on chimpanzee “conversations.”
“Human conversations are marked by fast-paced turns of about 200 milliseconds on average,” explained Catherine Hobaiter from the University of St Andrews, UK. “We wanted to see if this quick exchange pattern is unique to humans or shared by other animals.”
Led by first author Gal Badihi, the team observed that chimpanzees’ turn-taking in gestural communication mirrors the rapid pace of human dialogues, hinting at similar evolutionary roots for these social interactions. They gathered over 8,500 gestures from 252 chimps across five East African communities, discovering that about 14% of interactions included a gesture exchange, often comprising multiple parts.
Interestingly, the timing of these exchanges in chimps featured short pauses of about 120 milliseconds, closely matching human conversational gaps. Behavioral responses were slower, but the overall pattern suggested true gestural exchanges.
Variations among chimp communities paralleled human cultural differences in conversation speed, with some chimps responding more slowly, akin to how Danish people are typically slower responders compared to others.
This study implies that the foundations of face-to-face communication might be deeply rooted and shared across species. The researchers suggest that these communication structures could stem from shared ancestral mechanisms or evolved independently to manage social interactions effectively.
Future research aims to explore the origins and purposes of these gestural conversations in chimpanzees, potentially expanding to other social species like elephants or ravens to determine if these communication traits are widespread.
“It’s fascinating to see that our rapid conversational patterns might not be as unique as we thought,” Badihi commented. “This indicates that quick, close-range communicative exchanges could be a common feature among social animals.”
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