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Play and laughter: overlooked pillars of social cohesion. Commentary proposal for structural and cognitive mechanisms of group cohesion in primates

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 November 2025

Elisabetta Palagi ,
Fausto Caruana Open the ORCID record for Fausto Caruana [Opens in a new window]  and
Gordon Burghardt
Elisabetta Palagi
Affiliation:
Department of Biology, Unit of Ethology, University of Pisa, Pisa, Italy elisabetta.palagi@unipi.it
Fausto Caruana*
Affiliation:
Institute of Neuroscience, National Research Council of Italy (CNR), Parma, Italy fausto.caruana@in.cnr.it
Gordon Burghardt
Affiliation:
Departments of Psychology and Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN, USA gburghar@utk.edu
*
*Corresponding author.
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Abstract

While grooming and other forms of physical bonding are crucial for stress management, social play and laughter deserve equal recognition as tools for both stress relief and the reinforcement of social relationships. They play a pivotal role in the development of motor and social skills and serves as a foundational behavior in species that rely on cooperation and alliance-building.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 48 , 2025 , e178
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press

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