Cartmill EA

Joking is an important part of human interaction (e.g. [1]), one that draws on social intelligence, an ability to anticipate future actions and an ability to recognize and appreciate the violation of others' expectations. Teasing has much in common with joking, and playful teasing may be seen as a cognitive precursor.

Abstract Between-individual variation in behavioural expression, such as social responsiveness, has been shown to have important eco-evolutionary consequences. However, most comparative research on non-human primate communication has focused on species- or population-level variation, while among- and within-individual variation has been largely ignored or considered as noise.

1. Introduction ‘You can't tease other people unless you can correctly guess what is in their minds and make them suffer or laugh because of your knowing.’ – Daniel N. Stern [1] We are all familiar with teasing. Be it as teaser, recipient or observer, from early childhood onwards, everyone experiences this hard-to-define phenomenon that occurs in social interactions all around the world [2].