The Price of Being Social: The Role of Emotions in Feeding and Minimizing Conflicts - Conflict and Multimodal Communication: Social Research and Machine Intelligence - page 103

and contribute to limit conflicts. What does this benefit consist in? In this view,
the answer is that some kinds of stereotyped behaviors performed within group
dynamics are able to minimize the effects of intraspecific aggressiveness and
feed social confidence. To this extent, these elements are at the base of stable
communities, or, in other words, societies build upon this wide repertoire of
stereotyped components. Such idea is consistent with Lorenz's model that conceived
ritualization as the main regulator of aggression and hence as the foundation of
the normative system. In light of this framework, ritual evolved in response to the
selective pressures of the social environment and represents a bedrock of stable
social structures.
An evidence in support of this interpretative model comes from rituals observed
in chimpanzees and baboons, namely, reconciliation —the first inter-opponent
contact—and consolation , the contact between a recipient of aggression and a
third individual. With respect to reconciliation, de Waal and Lanting ( 1997 )have
underlined that after a fight, individuals come in contact with each other in the
immediate aftermath of conflict and preferentially with the antagonist. Recon-
ciliation consists of specific behavior patterns like kissing, holding out a hand,
submissive vocalization, and embracing. Aureli and de Waal ( 2000 , p. 16) describe
the phenomenon with these words:
In the course of a charging display, the highest-ranking male fiercely attacked a female. This
caused great commotion as other apes came to her defense. After the group had calmed
down, an unusual silence followed, as if the apes were waiting for something to happen.
This took a couple of minutes. Suddenly the entire colony burst out hooting, and one male
produced rhythmic noise on metal drums stacked up in the corner of the hall. In the midst
of this pandemonium, two chimpanzees kissed and embraced.
The result is the restoration of tolerance and the conservation of group cohesion
(Castles and Whiten 1998 ). Cords ( 1992 ), for instance, has shown that monkeys
engaged in reconciliation were more tolerant of each other's proximity close to
an attractive resource than individuals that had not reconciled. To this extent, the
evolution of releaser mechanisms made of fixed ritualized action sequences is
critical for the preservation of group living. Eibl-Eibesfeldt ( 1970 ) had already
underlined the role of appeasement gestures in animals, particularly in many species
of birds: the defeated animal displays a submissive behavior that contributes to
inhibit aggression, providing a foundation for bond formation.
For our purpose, the interesting fact that we intend to highlight is that recon-
ciliation can be explained by variation in the underlying emotions (Aureli and de
Waal 2000 ). Actually, after a conflict, an increase of anxiety that decreases after
reconciliation is observed. Other examples confirm that the disturbance and the
following restoration of a relationship are reflected in emotional responses. The
affiliative contacts occurring in conflict resolution are likely to be associated with
positive sensations: gentle touching causes relaxation and a reduction in heart rate
in humans and other primates (Feh and de Mazières 1993 ), and allogrooming in
monkeys decreases heart rate and reduces tension (Aureli et al. 1999 ). The same
results arise from playback experiments where baboons were played the threatening
screams of a dominant member that had recently charged them (Cheney et al. 1995 ).