Great Apes Use Affection to Maintain Social Harmony, Research Finds

In the aftermath of conflict, great apes do not simply move on — they reach for one another. New research documents that chimpanzees, gorillas, bonobos, and orangutans use kissing and cuddling as deliberate acts of social repair, suggesting that the impulse to restore connection after rupture is not a human invention but an ancient inheritance. The findings invite us to consider that empathy and reconciliation may be written into our shared biology, older than language, older than civilization itself.