A growing body of evidence from the behavioural and neural sciences indicates that social
touch has a vital role in human development and psychological well-being. Despite some …

While empathy is a century‐old psychological concept, its study in non‐human animals has
become the focus of much recent scientific interest, as it promises to provide the clues to …

Recent evidence from neurophysiology and human functional neuroimaging has given rise
to the hypothesis that social, affective touch belongs to a distinct category of tactile …

How animals respond to conflict provides key insights into the evolution of socio-cognitive
and emotional capacities. Evidence from apes has shown that, after social conflicts …

Background Bystander affiliation (post-conflict affiliation from an uninvolved bystander to the
conflict victim) may represent an expression of empathy in which the bystander consoles the …

The extent of (in) equality is highly diverse across species of social mammals, but we have a
poor understanding of the factors that produce or inhibit equitable social organizations …

Contact directed by uninvolved bystanders toward others in distress, often termed
consolation, is uncommon in the animal kingdom, thus far only demonstrated in the great …

Chimpanzees are known to spontaneously provide contact comfort to recent victims of
aggression, a behavior known as consolation. Similar behavior in human children is …

Because conflicts among social group members are inevitable, their management is crucial
for group stability. The rarest and most interesting form of conflict management is policing, ie …

" A Better Ape explores the evolution of the moral mind from our ancestors with
chimpanzees, through the origins of our genus and our species, to the development of …