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Outputs (17)

Perceptual integration of bodily and facial emotion cues in chimpanzees and humans (2024)
Journal Article
Heesen, R., Kim, Y., Kret, M. E., & Clay, Z. (2024). Perceptual integration of bodily and facial emotion cues in chimpanzees and humans. PNAS Nexus, 3(2), Article pgae012. https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgae012

For highly visual species like primates, facial and bodily emotion expressions play a crucial role in emotion perception. However, most research focuses on facial expressions, while the perception of bodily cues is still poorly understood. Using a no... Read More about Perceptual integration of bodily and facial emotion cues in chimpanzees and humans.

Variable expression of linguistic laws in ape gesture: a case study from chimpanzee sexual solicitation (2022)
Journal Article
Safryghin, A., Cross, C., Fallon, B., Heesen, R., Ferrer-i-Cancho, R., & Hobaiter, C. (2022). Variable expression of linguistic laws in ape gesture: a case study from chimpanzee sexual solicitation. Royal Society Open Science, 9(11), https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220849

Two language laws have been identified as consistent patterns shaping animal behaviour, both acting on the organizational level of communicative systems. Zipf's law of brevity describes a negative relationship between behavioural length and frequency... Read More about Variable expression of linguistic laws in ape gesture: a case study from chimpanzee sexual solicitation.

The Association Between the Bared-Teeth Display and Social Dominance in Captive Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) (2022)
Journal Article
Kim, Y., Vlaeyen, J., Heesen, R., Clay, Z., & Kret, M. (2022). The Association Between the Bared-Teeth Display and Social Dominance in Captive Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Affective Science, 3(4), 749-760. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42761-022-00138-1

Humans use smiles — widely observed emotional expressions — in a variety of social situations, of which the meaning varies depending on social relationship and the context in which it is displayed. The homologue of the human smile in non-human primat... Read More about The Association Between the Bared-Teeth Display and Social Dominance in Captive Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Flexible signalling strategies by victims mediate post-conflict interactions in bonobos (2022)
Journal Article
Heesen, R., Austry, D., Upton, Z., & Clay, Z. (2022). Flexible signalling strategies by victims mediate post-conflict interactions in bonobos. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 377(1860), https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0310

Compared to other animals, humans supposedly excel at voluntarily controlling and strategically displaying emotional signals. Yet, new data shows that nonhuman great apes' emotion expressions may also be subject to voluntary control. A key context to... Read More about Flexible signalling strategies by victims mediate post-conflict interactions in bonobos.

How 2- and 4-year-old children coordinate social interactions with peers (2022)
Journal Article
Rossano, F., Terwilliger, J., Bangerter, A., Genty, E., Heesen, R., & Zuberbühler, Z. (2022). How 2- and 4-year-old children coordinate social interactions with peers. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 377(1859), https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0100

The Interaction Engine Hypothesis postulates that humans have a unique ability and motivation for social interaction. A crucial juncture in the ontogeny of the interaction engine could be around 2–4 years of age, but observational studies of children... Read More about How 2- and 4-year-old children coordinate social interactions with peers.

Revisiting the human ‘interaction engine’: comparative approaches to social action coordination (2022)
Journal Article
Heesen, R., & Fröhlich, M. (2022). Revisiting the human ‘interaction engine’: comparative approaches to social action coordination. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 377(1859), https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2021.0092

The evolution of language was likely facilitated by a special predisposition for social interaction, involving a set of communicative and cognitive skills summarized as the ‘interaction engine'. This assemblage seems to emerge early in development, t... Read More about Revisiting the human ‘interaction engine’: comparative approaches to social action coordination.

Bared-teeth displays in bonobos (Pan paniscus): An assessment of the power asymmetry hypothesis (2022)
Journal Article
Vlaeyen, J. M. R., Heesen, R., Kret, M. E., Clay, Z., Bionda, T., & Kim, Y. (2022). Bared-teeth displays in bonobos (Pan paniscus): An assessment of the power asymmetry hypothesis. American Journal of Primatology, 84(9), Article e23419. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajp.23419

Facial expressions are key to navigating social group life. The Power Asymmetry Hypothesis of Motivational Emancipation predicts that the type of social organization shapes the meaning of communicative displays in relation to an individual's dominanc... Read More about Bared-teeth displays in bonobos (Pan paniscus): An assessment of the power asymmetry hypothesis.

Evidence of joint commitment in great apes’ natural joint actions (2021)
Journal Article
Heesen, R., Zuberbühler, K., Bangerter, A., Iglesias, K., Rossano, F., Pajot, A., …Genty, E. (2021). Evidence of joint commitment in great apes’ natural joint actions. Royal Society Open Science, 8(12), Article 211121. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.211121

Human joint action seems special, as it is grounded in joint commitment—a sense of mutual obligation participants feel towards each other. Comparative research with humans and non-human great apes has typically investigated joint commitment by experi... Read More about Evidence of joint commitment in great apes’ natural joint actions.

Assessing joint commitment as a process in great apes (2021)
Journal Article
Heesen, R., Bangerter, A., Zuberbühler, K., Iglesias, K., Neumann, C., Pajot, A., …Genty, E. (2021). Assessing joint commitment as a process in great apes. iScience, 24(8), Article 102872. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2021.102872

Many social animals interact jointly, but only humans experience a specific sense of obligation toward their co-participants, a joint commitment. However, joint commitment is not only a mental state but also a process that reveals itself in the coord... Read More about Assessing joint commitment as a process in great apes.

How apes get into and out of joint actions: Shared intentionality as an interactional achievement (2020)
Journal Article
Genty, E., Heesen, R., Guéry, J., Rossano, F., Zuberbühler, K., & Bangerter, A. (2020). How apes get into and out of joint actions: Shared intentionality as an interactional achievement. Interaction Studies: Social Behaviour and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems, 21(3), 353 - 386. https://doi.org/10.1075/is.18048.gen

Compared to other animals, humans appear to have a special motivation to share experiences and mental states with others (Clark, 2006; Grice, 1975), which enables them to enter a condition of ‘we’ or shared intentionality (Tomasello & Carpenter, 2005... Read More about How apes get into and out of joint actions: Shared intentionality as an interactional achievement.