Great apes deliberately spin around in order to make themselves dizzy, researchers have discovered. Academics at the University of Warwick and the University of Birmingham suggest the findings could provide clues about humans evolving the desire to seek altered mental states and actively manipulate their mood and perception of reality.
The study is based on the observations of online videos in which great apes – gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans – spin to deliberately make themselves dizzy. Dr Adriano Lameira, associate professor of psychology at the University of Warwick who co-led the study, said: “Every culture has found a way of evading reality through dedicated and special rituals, practices or ceremonies.
“This human trait of seeking altered states is so universal, historically and culturally, that it raises the intriguing possibility that this is something that has been potentially inherited from our evolutionary ancestors. If this was indeed the case, it would carry huge consequences on how we think about modern human cognition capacities and emotional needs.”
