woolymonkey: (wtf?)
woolymonkey ([personal profile] woolymonkey) wrote2008-01-03 10:04 am
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scientists make orangutans giggle

Dr Marina Davila Ross, from the University of Portsmouth and Professor Elke Zimmermann at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Hanover, Germany, studied the play behaviour of 25 orang-utans aged between two and 12 at four primate centres around the world.

Dr Davila Ross commented: "What is clear now is the building blocks of positive emotional contagion and empathy that refer to rapid involuntary facial mimicry in humans evolved prior to humankind."

Hard to keep a straight face, isn't it?

News story and giggling orang pic here.

ext_7904: (POTC-jack-dance)

[identity profile] porridgebird.livejournal.com 2008-01-03 03:59 pm (UTC)(link)
How cool is that!!

the building blocks of positive emotional contagion
Now there's an idea whose time has come :)))