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Conflict Resolution and Distress Alleviation in Monkeys and Apes
Author(s) -
WAAL FRANS B. M.,
AURELI FILIPPO
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
annals of the new york academy of sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.712
H-Index - 248
eISSN - 1749-6632
pISSN - 0077-8923
DOI - 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1997.tb51929.x
Subject(s) - consolation , empathy , distress , conflict resolution , psychology , social psychology , social conflict , flexibility (engineering) , prosocial behavior , social relation , personal distress , value (mathematics) , developmental psychology , political science , sociology , psychotherapist , social science , art , statistics , literature , mathematics , machine learning , politics , computer science , law
Research on nonhuman primates has produced compelling evidence for reconciliation and consolation, that is, postconflict contacts that serve to respectively repair social relationships and reassure distressed individuals, such as victims of attack. This has led to a view of conflict and conflict resolution as an integrated part of social relationships, hence determined by social factors and modifiable by the social environment. Implications of this new model of social conflict are discussed along with evidence for behavioral flexibility, the value of cooperation, and the possibility that distress alleviation rests on empathy, a capacity that may be present in chimpanzees and humans but not in most other animals.