Meg Crofoot: UC DavisAnimals living in stable social groups may often disagree about where to go, but must reconcile their differences to maintain cohesion and thus the benefits of group living. Although theory predicts that shared (democratic) decision-making should be widespread in nature, in species that form long-term social bonds, considerable asymmetries in dominance and […]

No BEC This Week:

Robert Provine: University of MarylandAfter an introduction to the nature and use of laughter in daily life, discussion turns to the evolution of laughter and its implications for the emergence of speech. Contrasts between human and chimpanzee laughter reveal that laughter is the ritualized signal of labored breathing of rough-and-tumble, with the vocalization representing the […]