Abstract

Postconflict management strategies have been defined as any postconflict interaction that mitigates the
negative consequences of the preceding agonistic conflict. Although most studies have investigated
postconflict interactions between former opponents or between victims and uninvolved bystanders,
interactions between aggressors and bystanders have received much less attention. In this study, we
examined a database of 1,102 agonistic interactions and their corresponding postconflict periods in
two outdoor-housed groups of captive chimpanzees in order to test the occurrence of postconflict thirdparty
affiliation of aggressors. Our results confirmed the occurrence of appeasement, i.e. postconflict
affiliation by a bystander toward an aggressor, but failed to detect the occurrence of postconflict
affiliation directed from aggressors toward bystanders. Appeasement rates did not differ according to
the sex of the involved individuals. In addition, appeasement occurred more often in the absence of
reconciliation than after its occurrence suggesting that appeasement may act as an alternative to
reconciliation when the latter fails to occur. Both study groups showed behavioral specificity for
appeasement, i.e. context-specific use of certain behaviors, supporting the view that chimpanzees exhibit
highly visible explicit postconflict affiliation.