Making amends

Conflict is an integral, and potentially disruptive, element in the lives of humans and other group-living animals. But conflicts are often settled, sometimes within minutes after the altercation has ended. The goal of this paper is to understand why primates, including humans, make amends. Primatologists have gathered an impressive body of evidence which demonstrates that monkeys and apes use a variety of behavioral mechanisms to resolve conflicts. Peaceful post-conflict interactions in nonhuman primates, sometimes labeled "reconciliation," have clear and immediate effects upon former adversaries, relieving uncertainty about whether aggression will continue, reducing stress, increasing tolerance, and reducing anxiety about whether aggressors will resume aggression toward former victims. However, the long-term effects of these interactions are less clearly established, leaving room to debate the adaptive function of conflict resolution strategies among primates. It is possible that reconciliatory behavior enhances the quality of valued, long-term social relationships or that reconciliatory interactions are signals that the conflict has ended and the actor’s intentions are now benign. Both of these hypotheses may help us to understand how and why monkeys, apes, and humans make amends. Over the past few years I have discussed the ideas in this paper with a number of colleagues, whose constructive comments and criticism have helped me to shape my thoughts about PPCS. I am grateful for feedback from F. Aureli, R. Boyd, D. Castles, D. Cheney, M. Cords, L. Fairbanks, S. Harcourt, S. Hrdy, B. Kaldor, R. Seyfarth, D. Smucny, and K. Stewart. Joan Silk is a professor in and chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Los Angeles. She has long-standing interests in the evolution of social behavior and the dynamics of social interactions among primates. She has conducted research on chimpanzees at the Gombe Stream National Park, on free-ranging baboons in Kenya and Botswana, and on captive bonnet macaques.