Staff profile

I am interested in the evolution of human joint action, including various capacities such as joint commitment and communicative repair, as well as specific communicational and emotional skills. To address the evolutionary origins of these abilities, I employ a comparative approach, in which I assess similarities and differences in the process of social action coordination in humans and great apes (particularly chimpanzees and bonobos). My approach mainly implies observations in natural settings, but I also design experiments to implement specific manipulations to study eye gaze, emotion expressions and perception, as well as cooperative decision making. 

• Evolution of social intelligence
• Communication
• Joint action

• https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p070r8b7

Available for media contact about:

• Evolution:

Chapter in book

• Heesen R., Sievers C., Gruber T. & Clay Z. (2022). Primate communication: Affective, intentional, or both? In Primate Cognitive Studies. B. L. Schwartz & M. J. Beran Cambridge University Press. 411-438.

Journal Article

• Safryghin, A., Cross, C., Fallon, B., Heesen, R., Ferrer-i-Cancho, R. & Hobaiter, C. (2022). Variable expression of linguistic laws in ape gesture: a case study from chimpanzee sexual solicitation. Royal Society Open Science 9(11).
• Kim, Y., Vlaeyen, J., Heesen, R., Clay, Z. & Kret, M. (2022). The Association Between the Bared-Teeth Display and Social Dominance in Captive Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes). Affective Science 3(4): 749-760.
• Heesen, R., Austry, D.A., Upton, Z. & Clay, Z. (2022). Flexible signalling strategies by victims mediate post-conflict interactions in bonobos. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 377(1860).
• Bangerter A., Genty E., Heesen R., Rossano F. & Zuberbühler Z. (2022). Every product needs a process: unpacking joint commitment as a process across species. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 377: 20210095.
• Heesen R. & Fröhlich M. (2022). Revisiting the human ‘interaction engine’ comparative approaches to social action coordination. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 377(1859):
• Rossano F., Terwilliger J., Bangerter A., Genty E., Heesen R. & Zuberbühler Z. (2022). How 2- and 4-year-old children coordinate social interactions with peers. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 377(1859).
• Vlaeyen J.M.R. Heesen R., Kret M.E., Clay Z., Bionda T. & Kim Y. (2022). Bared-teeth displays in bonobos (Pan paniscus): An assessment of the power asymmetry hypothesis. American Journal of Primatology
• Heesen R. Fröhlich M., Sievers C. Woensdregt M. & Dingemanse M. (2022). Coordinating social action: A primer for the cross-species investigation of communicative repair. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 377: 20210110.
• Heesen R., Zuberbühler K., Bangerter A., Iglesias K., Rossano F., Pajot A. Guéry J.P. & Genty E. (2021). Evidence of joint commitment in great apes’ natural joint actions. Royal Society Open Science 8(12): 211121.
• Heesen R., Bangerter A., Zuberbühler K., Iglesias K., Neumann C., Pajot A., Perrenoud L., Guéry JP. Rossano F. & Genty E. (2021). Assessing joint commitment as a process in great apes. iScience 24(8): 102872.
• Heesen R., Bangerter A., Zuberbühler K., Rossano F., Iglesias K., Guéry JP. & Genty E. (2020). Bonobos engage in joint commitment. Science Advances 6(51): eabd1306.
• Watson, S.K., Heesen, R. Hedwig, D., Robbins, M.M. & Townsend, S.W. (2020). An exploration of Menzerath’s law in wild mountain gorilla vocal sequences. Biology Letters 20200380.
• Genty, E., Heesen, R., Guéry, JP., Rossano, F., Zuberbühler, K., & Bangerter, A. (2020). How apes get into and out of joint actions: Shared intentionality as an interactional achievement. Interaction Studies
• Heesen R., Hobaiter C., Ferrer-i-Cancho R. & Semple S. (2019). Linguistic laws in chimpanzee gestural communication. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 286(1896): 20182900.
• Heesen R., Genty E., Rossano F., Zuberbühler K. & Bangerter A. (2017). Social play as joint action: A framework to study the evolution of shared intentionality as an interactional achievement. Learning & Behavior 45(4): 390.