Abstract

Accumulated evidence from studies on wild and captive populations shows that social animals use an array of behavioral mechanism mitigate the costs of aggression, generally labelled as conflict resolution mechanisms (Arnold, Fraser, & Aureli, 2010; Aureli & de Waal, 2000). Among them, reconciliation – i.e. friendly reunion of former opponents shortly after the end of a conflict – is probably the most efficient one, since it involves direct communication between involved individuals.